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RIVERSIDE  TEXTBOOKS 
IN  EDUCATION 

EDITED  BY  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY 

PROFESSOR    OF    EDUCATION 
LELAND   STANFORD   JUNIOR    UNIVERSITY 


DIVISION  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION 

UNDER  THE  EDITORIAL  DIRECTION 

OF  ALEXANDER  INGLIS 


PROFESSOR   OF   EDUCATION 
HARVARD    UNIVERSITY 


RURAL  LIFE 
AND  EDUCATION 

A  Study  of  the  Rural-School  Problem  as  a 
Phase  of  the  Rural-Life  Problem 

BY 

ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY 

PROFESSOR    OF    EDUCATION,    LELAND 
STANFORD  JUNIOR   UNIVERSITY 

REVISED  AND  ENLARGED  EDITION 


HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

BOSTON      NEW   YORK     CHICAGO      SAN    FRANCISCO 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,   BY  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY 

COPYRIGHT,  1914,  BY  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


EIGHTH   IMPRESSION 


CAMBRIDGE  •  MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


TSBrwy 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

A  RECENT  writer  has  stated  that  the  rural-school 
prol)lem  would  be  much  easier  of  solution  if  some 
writer  on  the  subject  would  clearly  set  forth  thejiature 
gf_the  problem.  The  suggestion  was  a  good  one,  as 
most  writers  on  the  subject  do  not  seem  to  see  clearly 
L        the  nature  of  the  problem  they  are  considering.  l..^,^^  m 

^*^n1  The  rural-school  problem  of  to-day  is  a  social,  even^jjf^^fif^ 
K  more  than,  ai^  educational  problem,  and  is  the  result  y^  ^ 

1  of  a  long  national  evolution,  coupled  with  recent  prg-  ^'^^^    ^ 
found  changes  in_rural  life_itself.    The  rural-school' 
problem  is  inseparable  from  the  rural-life  problem, 
of  which  it  is  but  a  phase.  Those  who  do  most  toward 
its  solution  will  be  those  who  see  the  problem  clearly, 
jp_its  historical  and  sociological  settmg,  and  who  have 


some  grasp  of  American  rural  history. 

To  give  the  problem  such  a  setting  has  been  the 
purpose  of  the  first  part  of  the  book.  The  rural-life 
problem  is  there  set  forth  in  its  historical  develop- 
ment, and  the  origin  and  present  status  of  the  rural- 
school  problem  shown.  With  this  as  a  basis  the  student 
is  ready  to  pass  to  the  second  part  of  the  book,  which 
sets  forth  specifically  the  present  rural-school  problem, 
and  points  out  the  fundamental  nature  of  the  remedies 
which  must  be  applied  for  its  solution.  The  many 
plates  and  figures  in  the  text  have  been  introduced 
to  give  greater  concreteness  to  the  discussion. 

Such  a  presentation  of  the  rural-life  and  rural- 
educational  problems  as  is  set  forth  in  the  following 


~r    KV  'r  ^.     '■' >■   ^'i. 


vi  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

pages  might  well  form  the  basis,  as  a  textbook,  for 
normal-school  classes  in  Rural-Life  Problems,  Rural- 
School  Problemj,  or  Rural  Sociology,  and  ought  to 
be  of  particular  value  to  such  students  in  properly- 
orienting  them  for  intelligent  work  in  rural  education. 
Those  studying  the  problem  in  normal-school  or  col- 
lege classes  in  School  Administration  ought  also  to 
find  the  presentation  helpful,  from  an  administrative 
point  of  view.  To  teachers  and  supervisory  officers  in 
service  the  presentation  ought  to  prove  instructive 
«iand  useful,  as  they  are  dealing  with  the  problem  at 
first  hand.  It  is  also  hoped  that  the  work  will  prove, 
interesting  and  instructive  to  farmers,  ministers,  rural 
librarians,  rural  social-workers,  and  other  students  of 
the  rural-life  problem.  The  book  has  been  prepared 
with  a  view  of  meeting  the  needs  of  these  different 
classes  of  students  and  citizens. 

Ellwood  p.  Cubberlet 
Stanford  University,  Cal. 
September  25.  1913 

REVISED  EDITION 

/  The  book  has  now  had  a  careful  and  complete  re- 
vision, some  of  the  chapters  being  rewritten,  old  data 
being  corrected  and  brought  up  to  date  or  elimi- 
nated, and  some  new  textual  matter  and  a  number  of 
new  maps  and  pictures  added.  In  this  new  form  it  is 
hoped  that  the  book  may  continue  to  receive  the  very 
cordial  welcome  which  has  been  given  it  in  the  past. 

The  Author 
Stanford  University,  Cal. 
November  20,  1921 


ANALYSIS  OF   CONTENTS 

PART  I.   THE  RURAL-LIFE  PROBLEM 

INTRODUCTION 3 

CHAPTER  I.    Changes  in  the  Nature  of  Rural 
Life       6 

Four  periods  of  development:  — 

I.  The  first  period,  up  to  1830:  —  Early  pioneer  life_^ — 
Markets  —  Trading  —  Subsistence  farming. 

II.  The  second  period,  1830-1860:  — A  perigd  of  trans- 
fouoation  —  Rise  of  commerce  and  manufacturing  —  Home 
and  school. 

III.  The  third  period,  1860-1890:  —  Homestead  laws  — 
Inventions  and  developments  -rr-The  home-buildgr  farmer 

—  ^xpansipn  and  overdevelopment  —  The  cityward  migra- 
tion —  Saving  in  farm  labor  —  The  result. 

CHAPTER  n.    New  Rural-Life  Conditions    .    .    29 

IV.  The  fourth-period  development :  —  Fourth-period  char- 
acteristics—  Importance  of  the  changes. 

I.  The  urbanization  of  rural  life:  —  Changes  in  rural  liv- 
ing —  New  rural  conveniences  —  Better  homes  —  The  new 
rural  life  —  The  town  movement. 

II.  Reorganization  and  commercialization  of  agricul- 
tiu-e:  —  The  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture  —  New  agri- 
cultural development  —  New  markets  —  Agricultural  ex- 
pansion —  The  future  —  Commercialized  large-scale  farm- 
ing —  Intensive  small-scale  farming  —  Decreasing  rural 
population. 

III.  Farm  tenantry:  —  Recent  increase  —  Recent  change 
in  character  —  New  tenants  —  The  Southern  Negro  tenant 

—  The    intermittent    farm    laborer  —  The    fourth-period 
changes  —  Significance  of  the  changes. 


viii  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  m.    Effects    of    these   Changes   on 
Rural  Society  and  Rural  Institutions     ...    63 

I.  New  rural  social  life:  —  Early  social  life  —  New  and 
larger  interests  —  City  connections  —  Enjoyment  of  life  — 
Tenantry  and  social  life  —  Degenerate  rural  life. 

II.  Local  government  —  Loss  of  interest  in  —  The  new 
tenants  and  government.  —  Effects  of  the  change. 

III.  The  church:  —  The  rural  church  —  The  New  Eng- 
land influence  —  Large  influence  of  the  early  church  — 
Early  religious  intensity  —  The  intellectual  revolution  — 
Social  nature  of  the  old  Sunday  meeting  —  The  process  of 
church  decline  —  Dying  churches  —  Problems  which  the 
church  faces  to-day  —  Great  potential  usefulness,  neverthe- 
less —  Social  mission  of  the  rural  church  —  The  teacher  and 
the  chiKch  problem. 

CHAPTER  rV.    Effects  of  these  Changes  on  the 
Rural  School 83 

Origin  of  the  district  school  —  At  first  a  purely  local 
undertaking  —  The  demand  for  state  schools — The  second- 
period  school  —  The  early  schoolmaster  —  EfBciency  of  the 
education  for  the  time. 

Changes  in  rural  education  after  about  1870  —  The  change 
in  direction  —  The  city-school  influence  —  Decline  in  effi- 
ciency —  The  rural  school  and  the  fourth-period  changes  — 
New  fourth-period  demands  —  Gradual  desertion  of  the 
rural  school. 

Present  inadequacy  of  the  old  education  —  Breakdown 
of  the  old  administrative  machinery  —  Increasing  needs  and 
costs  — The  burden  of  taxation — Present  plight  of  the  rural 
school. 

CHAPTER  V.    Rural  Life  and  Needs  of  To-Day  104 

Reconstruction  and  reorganization  necessary  —  The  edu- 
cational deficiency  —  The  great  rural  social  problem  — 
Ownership  vs.  tenantry  —  Important  rural  economic  inter- 
ests —  Great  rural  interests  are  human  interests. 

Fundamental  rural  needs:  —  1.  Better  schools  —  Reten- 
tion of  personality  —  The  school  and  personality  —  2. 
Larger  life  and  outlook  —  3.  Better  homes  —  Better  kitch- 
ens —  4.  A  community  center.  Early  centers  for  the  com- 
munity life  —  Can  the  church  become  such  now  —  Need  of  a 


^ 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS  a 

program  for  social  work  —  Need  for  cooperation  —  Rural 
organizations  —  The  rural  library  —  The  school  —  5.  Com- 
munity life  —  Constructive  rural  service  —  The  call  for 
rural  service  —  Meaning  of  the  country-life  movement. 

CHAPTER  VI.    Some  Worthy  Examples  of  Rural 
Service 131 

I.  Church  organizations:  —  1.  A  rural  church  —  2.  A  vil- 
lage church  —  3.  A  rural  community-center  church  and  Sun- 
day school  —  4.  District  nursing. 

II.  Organizations  for  young  people:  —  1.  Y.M.C.A.  —  2. 
Y.W.C.A.  —  3.  Boy  Scouts,  and  Camp-Fire  Girls  — 4. 
Agricultural  Clubs. 

III.  The  rural  library  —  Examples  of  such  service. 

IV.  Farmers'  organizations:  —  The  Grange. 

V.  Organizations  for  agricultural  improvement  —  The 
farmers'  institute  —  The  county  farm  expert. 

VI.  Community-center  organizations  —  An  early  com- 
munity-center beginning  —  The  community-center  idea. 

PART  II.   THE  RURAL-SCHOOL  PROBLEM 

CHAPTER  Vn.    Fundamental  Needs   in   Rural 
Education 163 

The  school  and  democracy  —  The  decline  of  the  district 
school  —  The  result  of  recent  changes  —  Rural  school  still 
of  large  importance  —  Poor  rural  schools  not  necessary  — 
The  recent  criticism  from  without  —  The  recent  rural-life 
movement  —  The  away-from-the-farm  influence  in  rural 
education  —  Need  of  redirecting  the  school  —  Difficulties  to 
be  encountered  —  The  great  rural- life  interests  —  What  the 
Country-Life  Commission  had  to  say  —  Revitalizing  the 
school  —  Legitimate  functions  of  the  redirected  school  —  A 
group  of  problems  involved. 

CHAPTER  Viil.   Organization  and  Maintenance  177 

I.  Types  of  organization:  —  1.  The  district  system  —  Its 
essential  features  —  Evolution  of  district  organization  — 
District  powers  and  duties  —  Curtailing  the  powers  in  the 
interests  of  efficiency  —  Where  the  district  system  rendered 
service  —  Chief  objections  to  the  district  system  —  Exces- 
sive number  of  school  officers  —  2.  The  town  or  township 


X  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS 

system  —  The  New  England  town  system  —  Town  vs.  dis- 
trict control  —  The  Western  township  system  —  3.  The 
county  system  —  The  county  unit  in  evolution  —  Advan- 
tages of  the  county  system  —  4.  The  state  miit. 

II.  Types  of  maintenance :  —  General  taxation  for  educa- 
tion —  1.  District  taxation  —  Changes  in  wealth  and  educa- 
tion —  2.  Town  or  township  taxation  —  Town  and  town- 
ship inequalities  —  3.  County  taxation  —  Equalizing  effect 
of  a  county  school  tax  —  4.  State  taxation  —  General  vs. 
local  effort  —  Systems  of  distribution  —  Fundamental 
needs  for  rural-school  progress. 

CHAPTER  IX.    The  Teaching  Equipment  .    .    .206 

The  need  for  better  equipment:  —  1.  The  building — The 
type  —  Why  they  persist  —  A  common  condition  —  Limita- 
tions to  instruction  —  The  cheap  building  —  Fundamental 
needs  in  a  school  building  —  Library,"  science,  and  work 
rooms  —  2.  The  site  —  The  site  for  instruction  purposes  — 
The  site  and  esthetic  training  —  3.  The  teacher's  home  — 
The  "teacherage" — 4.  Teaching  equipment — Needed 
teaching  apparatus  —  5.  School  library. 

City  and  country  compared  —  Better  equipment  essen- 
tial —  Difficulties  in  the  way  —  The  need  of  educational 
reorganization. 

CHAPTER  X.    The    Reorganization    of    Rural 
Education 226 

The  multiplication  of  districts  —  The  present  result  — 
Recent  attempts  to  improve  conditions  —  The  root  of  the 
difficulty  —  Equal  rights  for  the  country  child. 

Consolidation  in  central  schools  —  The  consolidation 
movement  —  Slow  progress  of  consolidation  —  Recent 
rapid  adoption  of  the  consolidation  idea  —  The  essentials 
of  the  plan  —  Inaugurating  the  movement  —  The  common 
plan  —  The  result  in  Ohio  —  The  centralization  plan  —  Ad- 
vantages of  the  plan  —  Disadvantages  of  the  plan  — 
The  county-unit  plan  —  Advantages  of  the  county  unit. 

The  need  for  such  reorganizations  —  Such  schools  natural 
community  centers  —  A  community  school  illustrated  —  A 
state  reorganization. 

CHAPTER  XL   A  New  Curriculum 256 

The  old  curriculum  —  Why  such  instruction  continues  — 
Recent  attempts  to  change  these  conditions  —  The  old  tradi- 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS  xl 

tional  curriculum  —  Arithmetic  —  Grammar  and  language 

—  Geography  —  Physiology  and  hygiene  —  History. 
Redirecting  the  school  —  New  instructional  needs  —  Na- 
ture study  and  agriculture  —  What  can  be  taught  —  How 
such  instruction  works  —  Domestic  science  —  Manual  train- 
ing —  The  home-project  idea  and  work  —  Organized  play 

—  The  new  and  the  old  compared  —  Possible  correlations 

—  How  far  is  such  redirection  possible  —  The  rural  high 
school  —  Redirecting  the  high  school  —  The  country 
boy  who  goes  to  the  city. 

CHAPTER  XII.    A  New  Teacher 283 

A  new  teacher  needed  —  Training  and  wages  compared  — 
The  natural  result  —  The  remedy  —  Importance  of  the 
wage  question  —  Present  status  of  teacher  training  —  New 
attention  to  the  rural-t*acher  problem. 

Teachers'  training  classes  —  Nature  of  the  instruction 
offered  —  Why  such  courses  are  inadequate  —  Probable 
future  development  —  More  recent  development  —  A  sug- 
gested one-j'ear  course  —  Explanations  of  —  What  such  a 
course  prepares  for  —  The  rural  high-school  teacher  — 
The  call  for  rural  leadership  —  Possibilities  for  usefulness  — 
Personal  attitude;  steps  in  the  process. 

CHAPTER  Xin.  A  New  Type  of  Supervision    .    .  306 

Larger  rural  leadership  —  The  county  unit  in  evolution 

—  The  evolution  of  the  school  superintendency  —  New  con- 
ception of  the  office  —  Our  present  supervision  —  The  sys- 
tem to  blame  —  Present  conditions  in  the  county  office  — 
Why  the  cities  draw  the  best  —  Where  the  fault  lies  — 
Stock  arguments  —  The  way  out  —  What  democracy 
should  mean. 

A  reorganized  county  system  —  The  county  board  —  The 
plan  applied  —  The  gain  in  supervision  —  Bad  features  it 
would  eliminate. 

CHAPTER   XIV.    Noteworthy  Examples  in  Ru- 
ral Education 328 

I.  A  one-room  rural  school  —  Its  building  and  equip- 
ment. 

II.  An  Illinois  consolidated  school  —  Its  building,  equip- 
ment, and  work. 

III.  A  Colorado  cominunity-center  consolidated  school  — 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Its  organization,  and  work  —  The  community-center  —  The 

community  church  and  Sunday  school. 

IV.  A  county-unit  school  system  —  The  county  board  — 
The  slow  development,  and  the  present  conditions  —  The 
work  of  the  county  superintendent  —  The  present  excellent 
county  system  —  The  five  reasons  for  it. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY       357 

INDEX 373 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

V       Facing 
Primitive  Conditions  —  Subsistence  Farming       ....     12 

A  Farmhouse  of  the  Home-Builder  Period 13 

Per  Cent  Land  in  Farms  forms  of  Total  Land  Area,  by  Coun- 
ties: 1920 .30 

Per  Cent  Improved  Land  in  Farms  forms  of  Total  Land  Area, 

by  Counties:  1920 31 

University  Extension  in  Agriculture 58 

New  Farm  Workers  and  Owners 59 

The  District  School  —  Primitive  Conditions 92 

The  Schoolhouse  Spelling  Match  of  Long  Ago       ....     93 

Satisfying  the  Social  Instincts  of  Youth 112 

Retaining  Personality  by  Educating  Farmers  to  keep  Track  of 

their  Business 113 

Lads  from  the  Farms  at  a  College  Lecture  on  Corn  .  .  .148 
An  Automobile  that  has  taught  a  County  to  read  .  .  ,  149 
One  of  the  Local  Meetings  for  Community  Improvement  .       .  149 

Where  the  District  System  rendered  Service 184 

A  Common  Type  of  Schoolhouse  Site 216 

A  Good  One-Teacher  Rural-School  Plant 217 

Different  Means  for  transporting  Pupils 242 

Types  of  Modern  Consolidated  Schools 243 

Health  Defects  in  City  and  Country  Children  Compared        264a 

New  Forms  of  Instruction,  I 268 

New  Forms  of  Instruction,  II 269 

Rural  High-School  Instruction,  I 280 

Rural  High-School  Instruction,  II 281 

Teaching  Country  Children  in  Terms  of  Country  Life       .       .  290 

Manual  Training  in  the  Rural  School 291 

A  Rural  School  Exhibit 304 


FIGURES,  DIAGRAMS,  AND  MAPS  xiii 

Boys'  Session  of  the  Farmers'  Institute 305 

The  Model  Rural  School  at  the  Kirksville,  Missouri,  Normal 

School 328 

The  Harlem  Consolidated  School,  Winnebago  County,  111.  I    .  334 

The  Harlem  Consolidated  School,  II 335 

The  Sargent  Consolidated  School,  Colorado 340 

The  Center  Consolidated  School,  Colorado 341 

FIGURES,  DIAGRAMS,  AND  MAPS 

1.  Showing  Recent  Rapid  Growth  of  Urban  Population         .      8 

2.  An  Early  Home  11 

S.  The  United  States  in  1850 17 

4.  Development  of  Farms.   East  North-central  Division  .      .  19 

5.  Development  of  Farms.   West  North-central  Division        .  20 

6.  Value  per  Acre  of  Farm  Property 23 

7.  Development  of  Farms 24 

8.  Distribution  of  Population  by  Decades 25 

9.  Relative  Rates  of  Increase  in  Population  and  Production  27 

10.  Per   Cent  Land    in  Farms  forms    of    Total   Land  Area, 

by  Counties:  1920 jacing    80 

11.  Per  Cent  Improved  Land  in  Farms  forms  of  Total  Land 
Area,  by  Counties:  1920 facing    31 

12.  Agriculture  in  the  United  States  —  Surplus  for  Export, 
1900-1920 42 

12a.  Farm  Property  Values  per  Acre 43 

13.  Decrease  or  Increase  in  Population  in  Indiana,  1910-1920  .  48 

14.  Per  Cent  of  Increase  in  Rural  Population,  by  States, 
1910-1920 49 

15.  Changes  in  the  Population,  1910-1920,  in  Eight  Important 
Agricultural  States 60 

16.  Acreage  of  all  Land  in  Farms  classified  by  Character  of 
Tenure  of  Operator,  1920 53 

17.  Percentage  of  Foreign-born  Whites,  and  Native  Whites  of 
Foreign  or  Mixed  Parentage  combined,  in  the  Total  Pop- 
ulation, 1920 57 

18.  Classes  of  Farmers  in  the  Cotton  Belt  of  the  South     .      .  67 

19.  The  Polish  Farmers'-Day  Poster 70 

20.  Typical  One-Room  Rural  Churches 73 

21.  Spiritual  Illiteracy  in  the  United  States 78 

22.  A  Typical  Early  School  Interior,  I            84 

23.  A  Typical  Early  School  Interior,  II  ' 86 

24.  A  Schoolmaster  of  the  Old  Type 87 


xiv  FIGURES.  DIAGRAMS,  AND  MAPS 

25.  Decreasing  Percentage  of  Men  Teachers 91 

26.  Increasing  Cost  of  Education,  per  Pupil,  in  Average  Daily 
Attendance 99 

27.  Increasing  Length  of  Term,  in  Days 101 

28.  Rural  Unrest  in  the  South 109 

29.  Percentage  of  Total  Population  in  Rural  Districts,  1920  112 

50.  A  Community  Center  of  Large  Influence,  in  the  Wrong 
Direction 118 

51.  Diagram  of  a  Country  Community-Center      ....  119 

32.  Union  Church,  Proctor,  Vermont 121 

33.  The  Original  Church 132 

34.  The  New  Institutional  Church 135 

35.  Y.M.C.A.  County  Organization 141 

36.  Y.M.C.A.  County  Work 143 

37.  A  Traveling  Library  in  a  Farmhouse 147 

38.  Floor  Plans  of  the  Brim6eld,  Illinois,  Community-Center 
House     , 160 

39.  The  School  by  the  Wayside 164 

m.  A  One-Pupil  Class 165 

41.  A  Typical  Run-down  Schoolhouse 167 

42.  A  Typical  Rural  School  of  the  Better  Class     .       .       .       .171 

43.  Forms  for    School    Administration  used  in    the    United 
States 179 

44.  Early  Organization  of  School  Districts 181 

45.  Later  Organization  and  Reorganization 182 

46.  New  England  Towns  and  Western  Townships  compared   .  187 

47.  A  Typical  Present-Day  Interior 208 

48.  A  Typical  Weather-boarded  Box 209 

49.  A  More  Attractive  Exterior  210 

60,  A  Rearranged  Interior 211 

61,  A  Suggested  Exterior 213 

62,  A  Model  Interior  for  a  One-Teacher  Rural  Schoolhouse     .  214 

63,  The  Model  Rural-School  Building  at  Mayville,  North  Da- 
kota         215 

64,  A  Desirable  Type  of  Rural-School  Building    .      .      .       215a 

64a,  An  Ohio  School  Site .216 

55.  A  "Teacherage"  for  Two  Teachers 2186 

66.  Randolph  County,   Indiana,  showing  Progress  of   Con- 
solidation by  1921 231 

57,  Map  of  Iowa,  showing  Consolidated  Schools  ....  232 

58,  A  Large  Colorado  Consolidated  District 234 

69.  Map  of  Colorado,  showing  Consolidated  Schools  .       .       .  236 

60.  Stranded  Districts 237 


FIGURES,  DIAGRAMS,  AND  MAPS  xv 

61.  Diagram  of  Gustavus  Township,  Trumbull  County,  Ohio, 
showing  Transportation  Routes 238 

62.  Central  Public  School,  Trumbull  County,  Ohio     .      .      .  241 

63.  The  Ordinary  Road  to  Learning 242 

64.  One  of  the  Landmarks 246 

65.  Map  showing  Consolidated  Districts  and  Location  of  Con- 
solidated Schoolhouses  in  Duval  County,  Florida    .       .       .  247 

66.  Map  of  Ada  County,  Idaho,  showing  the  Boundaries  of  the 
School  Districts  and  the  Location  of  Rural  District  Schools 
and  High  Schools,  1908 249 

67.  Same  County,  illustrating  a  Tentative  Plan  of  Consolida- 
tion   250 

68.  A  Community-Center  School 252 

69.  First-floor  Plan  of  Community-Center  School       .       .       .  253 

70.  A  Reading  Chart  for  Rural  Schools 266 

71.  How  the  Chief  County  (or  Town)  School  Officer  is  secured 

in  our  American  States 312 

72.  Basement  Plan  of  Model  Rural  School 330 

73.  First-Floor  Plan  of  Model  Rural  School 332 

74.  Attic  Plan  of  Model  Rural  School 333 

75.  The  Harlem  Consolidated  School  Grounds,  Winnebago 
County,  Illinois 337 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 
PART  I 

THE  RURAI^LIFE   PROBLEM 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

INTRODUCTION 

To  one  who  has  given  little  or  no  attention  to  the 
subject,  it  is  hard  to  appreciate  the  great  revolution  in 
rural  life  which  has  taken  place  during  the  past  three 
quarters  of  a  century.  The  changes  which  have  been 
accomplished  have  been  of  far-reaching  importance, 
and  they  have  touched  every  phase  of  rural  life. 
Almost  nothing  is  now  as  it  used  to  be;  almost  nothing 
is  done  now  as  it  was  three  quarters  of  a  century  ago. 
We  of  to-day  live  in  a  new  world  —  a  world  of  which 
our  grandfathers  scarcely  dreamed.  Life  everywhere 
to-day  is  far  more  complex,  intricate,  difficult,  and 
fruitful  of  both  pleasure  and  profit  than  was  that  of 
which  our  grandfathers  formed  a  part.  The  great 
changes  which  have  taken  place  in  living  and  industry 
have  affected  all  of  our  people,  rural  and  urban,  but 
perhaps  nowhere  has  the  revolution  in  living  and 
industry  been  of  more  far-reaching  importance  than 
to  those  of  our  people  who  live  on  the  farms  and  in  the 
little  villages  of  our  nation. 

This  social  and  industrial  revolution  has  profoundly 
changed  the  whole  naiure  of  rural  life.  Some  rural 
communities  naturally  have  experienced  a  greater 
change  than  others,  but  no  community  has  wholly 


4  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

escaped.   The  revolution,  too,  has  been  so  rapid,  so 
extensive,  and  so  far-reaching  in  its  consequences  that 

I  both  rural  people  and  rural  institutions  have  not 
changed  rapidly  enough  to  keep  £ace_with_the_de- 
mands  of  th^  n^yr  rivjlizat^'op.  The  result  has  been  the 
development  of  a  rural-life  problem  of  great  social  and 
economic  consequence,  and  one  which  involves  most 
of  the  cherished  institutions  of  rural  society.  It  has 
become  particularly  acute,  as  it  relates  to  the  character 
and  elements  of  the  rural  population  itselL  the  condi- 
tions of  land-ownership  and  farm-tenancy,  rural  home 
life,  rural  societyfthe  rural  church,  antr  rural  educa- 
tion. Taken  altogether  and  as  a  whole,  we  call  this 
cqll^ctionof  jproblems  thg  rural-life  problem.  While  of 
necessity  referring  to  each  of  these  phases  of  the  rural- 
life  problem,  as  they  are  in  a  way  all  tied  up  together, 
this  book  will  have  special  reference  to  the  problem  as 
it  relates  to  the  rural  and  the  village  school.  It  may 
accordingly  be  considered  as  a  treatise  on  that  phase 
of  the  rural-life  problem  commonly  known  as  the 
rural-school  problem,  concerning  which  much  has 
been  said  and  written  within  recent  years. 

Like  all  social  problems,  the  rural-school  problem 
has  had  a  gradual  evolution  and  is  closely  related  to  the 
other  rural-community  problems,  and  this  it  will  be 
our  purpose  first  to  trace  and  to  explain.  Almost  any 
social  problem  is  more  understandable  if  we  can  see  it 
in  its  historical  setting,  and  grasp  it  in  its  relations  to 
other  community  forces  and  problems.   After  giving 


INTRODUCTION  5 

the  problem  this  setting,  the  rural-school  problem  as 
such  will  be  examined  in  some  detail,  the  relation 
of  teachers  and  supervisory  officers  to  it  pointed 
out,  and  the  remedies  which  must  be  applied  to  it 
explained. 


CHAPTER  I 

CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE 

Four  periods  of  development.  The  development  of 
rural  life  in  the  United  States,  since  the  beginning  of 
our  Republic,  may  be  divided  into  four  great  periods, 
each,  with  the  exception  of  the  first,  covering  about 
the  life  of  a  single  generation.  Each  of  these  periods 
has  been  characterized  by  important  movements  in 
the  population,  by  important  changes  in  the  nature 
and  methods  of  agriculture,  and  by  marked  changes  in 
almost  all  of  the  conditions  and  surroundings  of  rural 
life.  Each  period,  too,  has  been  characterized  by  more 
fundamental  and  more  far-reaching  changes  than  the 
one  which  preceded  it,  until  to-day  the  changes  have 
become  so  great  and  so  profound  that  they  partake  of 
the  nature  of  an  agricultural  revolution.  New  methods 
in  farming  have  been  employed,  entirely  new  mar- 
kets have  been  found,  inter-communication  has  been 
established  in  ways  before  undreamed  of,  machinery 
and  labor-saving  devices  have  tremendously  simplified 
and  cheapened  production,  the  old  rural  institutions 
are  dying  out,  the  home  and  its  management  are  no 
longer  the  same,  and  opportunities  for  leisure  and  a 
taste  for  higher  pursuits  have  been  developed  to  a 
degree  which  would  have  seemed  impossible  even  half 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE      7 

a  century  ago.  It  is  certainly  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that,  in  all  of  the  time  from  the  crusades  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
no  such  profound  and  far-reaching  changes  in  the 
methods  of  agriculture  or  the  conditions  of  rural  life 
were  accomplished  as  have  been  accomplished  in  the 
United  States  during  the  last  seventy-five  to  one 
hundred  years. 

The  rural-school  problem,  which  is  to  be  the  special 
theme  of  this  book,  has  arisen  as  a  result  of  these 
many  and  far-reaching  changes,  and  the  difficulties 
which  now  confront  the  rural  school  will  be  under- 
stood much  better  if  we  first  trace  these  great  historical 
changes  in  rural  life,  and  show  the  relation  of  these 
changes  to  the  problem  in  hand.  Accordingly  we  shall 
first  sketch  this  development,  state  the  chief  charac- 
teristics of  each  of  the  four  great  periods  which  we 
have  said  that  rural  life  in  the  United  States  may 
be  divided  into,  and  then  state  the  conditions  which 
confront  rural  society  to-day. 

I.   UP  TO  1830 

The  first  period  of  development.  The  first  period  in 
our  agricultural  development  may  be  said  to  have 
extended  up  to  about  1830  or  1835.  In  a  way  it  was 
an  extension  of  the  colonial  period,  and  of  the  system 
of  farming  and  of  rural  life  then  in  vogue.  Nearly  all 
life  at  the  time  our  National  Government  was  estab- 
lished was  rural,  and  nearly  every  one  lived  on  farms 


8 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


or  in  little  villages.  But  3.35  per  cent  of  the  total  pop- 
ulation, or  but  one  person  in  thirty,  lived  in  a  city  of 
8000  inhabitants  or  over  in  1790,  and  but  3.97  per  cent 


o        o         o        o 

^r-«'->f-l«-lfH.-ii-4.-l.-H  r^rH.Hr-1 

FiQ.  1.    SHOWING  RECENT  RAPID  GROWTH  OF  URBAN  POPULATION 


in  1800.  Still  more,  there  were  but  six  such  cities  in  the 
whole  of  the  thirteen  original  states  until  1810,  and  the 
largest  city  in  the  United  States  had  less  than  75,000 
inhabitants.  Even  in  such  a  city  all  life  was  far  simpler 
then  than  in  a  small  Western  county-seat  town  to-day. 
Almost  everywhere  then  the  people  lived  on  little 
farms,  and  their  chief  object  was  to  clear  the  tract. 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE     9 

develop  the  land,  and  obtain  a  living  from  the  soil. 
There  were  few  markets,  and  these  were  local  to  a  high 
degree.  A  little  wheat  was  sold  in  the  Middle  Colo- 
nies for  shipment  to  England,  as  was  tobacco  in  the 
Southern.  Rice  and  indigo  were  also  raised  for  export 
in  the  Carolinas  and  in  Georgia.  Even  these,  though, 
could  not  be  sold  except  when  raised  near  to  the  sea- 
coast,  as  the  almost  complete  absence  of  roads  and  the 
diflSculties  of  transportation  made  a  market  elsewhere 
impossible.  The  division  of  labor  had  not  as  yet  made 
much  headway,  either  in  industry  or  in  agriculture. 
Families  lived  off  of  the  land,  and  produced  by  hand 
nearly  all  that  they  ate  or  wore.  If  near  a  village  or  a 
crossroads  store,  a  part  of  the  surplus  of  certain  crops 
was  exchanged,  by  barter,  for  certain  manufactured 
articles.  Life  was  exceedingly  simple,  and  diflScult  as 
well. 

Almost  immediately  after  the  establishment  of  peace 
with  Great  Britain,  a  strong  westward  movement  of 
the  population  began.  New  England  people  had 
already  settled  New  York  and  northeastern  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  men  from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  had 
moved  westward  into  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Soon 
this  movement  extended  farther  westward.  First 
Ohio,  then  northern  Indiana  and  Illinois,  southern 
Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  and,  still  later,  Iowa  were 
settled  by  people  of  New  England  stock.  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  southern  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  Missouri 
were  settled  by  people  from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 


10  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

while  Alabama  and  Mississippi  were  a  result  of  south- 
em  migrations,  chiefly  from  Georgia.  The  beginnings 
of  the  national  land  policy  after  1785,  after  which 
time  farms  in  the  wilderness  were  sold  to  settlers  at 
low  prices,^  greatly  stimulated  migration  and  helped 
to  settle  the  new  territory.  After  1820  a  constant 
stream  of  wagons  poured  into  the  wilderness,  and  by 
1821  nine  new  states  had  been  added  to  the  Union,  all 
carved  from  these  Western  lands,  while  the  frontier 
had  been  pushed  out  to  and  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
Four  more  states  were  added  from  this  Western  do- 
main by  1848,  completing  the  Union  out  to  and  includ- 
ing the  first  tier  of  states  west  of  the  Mississippi,  with 
the  single  exception  of  Minnesota. 

Early  pioneer  life.  Life  in  the  new  land  was  full  of 
hardships,  and  one  of  unremitting  toil.  Forests  had  to 
be  cut  down,  stumps  burned  out,  swamps  drained,  and, 
to  the  westward,  the  thick  sod  of  the  prairies  broken. 
Farm  life  west  of  the  Alleghanies  became  a  repetition 
of  colonial  life  to  the  east  of  the  mountains.  It  was  a 
period  of  intense  struggle  with  the  untamed  forces  of 
nature,  and  the  pressing  demands  on  the  new  settlers 
for  food  and  shelter  for  the  family  and  stock  left  little 
time  for  any  leisure  employment.  Every  member  of 
the  family  had  to  work  and  work  hard,  and  every 
member  was  made  useful  from  a  very  early  age.  The 
agriculture  was  largely  experimental,  and  was  carried 
on  by  the  primitive  methods  and  with  the  primitive 

>  At  first  fixed  at  $2  per  acre,  but  after  1821  fixed  at  $1.25  per  acre. 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  KUEAL  UFE  11 


mmpi^'r^'smmc 


Fio.  2.    AN  EARLY  HOME 


implements  of  the  times.  The  ox  and  a  rude  form 
of  plow  were  about  all  of  the  labor-saving  devices 
at  hand.  The  home  was  of  the  simplest  kind,  and 
the  furnishings  exceedingly  primitive.  A  log  cabin, 
chinked  with 
mud ;  an  open 
fireplace,  with  a 
stick-and-clay 
chimney;  home- 
made furniture 
and  simple  equip- 
ment were  the 
characteristics  of 
the  times.  Of  fuel 
and    food    there 

was  plenty,  and  the  family  raised  and  prepared  al- 
most all  that  was  eaten  or  worn.  Corn  was  the  chief 
crop  at  first,  and  cattle  and  hogs  the  chief  animals 
raised.  The  people  laid  by  corn  for  winter;  smoked 
their  own  meats;  preserved  such  few  poor  fruits  of  the 
time  as  they  cared  for  or  had  the  means  to  keep;  made 
their  own  lard,  butter,  candles,  and  clothing;  manu- 
factured sugar  and  syrup  from  the  forest  maples; 
evaporated  salt  from  the  salt  springs  or  "  licks  ";  and 
ground  their  corn  in  rude  hand-operated  mills.  Of 
intercommunication  there  was  little;  of  comforts  and 
pleasures,  very  few;  of  doctors  and  nurses,  almost 
none.  It  was  the  rude  and  primitive  existence  of  the 
sturdy  pioneer;  and  the  hard  work,  the  difficulties  of 


12  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  struggle  with  the  untamed  forces  of  nature  in  a 
new  land,  the  lack  of  outlook,  and  the  loneliness  and 
isolation  of  the  life  must  have  borne  hard  on  many  a 
man  and  woman. 

Markets.  Of  markets  there  were  practically  none, 
except  near  the  seaboard,  and  agriculture  everywhere 
was  in  what  has  been  termed  the  self-sufficing  stage  of 
its  development.  A  farmer  could  raise  enough  for  his 
own  needs,  but  there  was  little  chance  to  dispose  of 
any  surplus.  Cotton  in  the  South,  due  to  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  cotton-gin,  was  an  exception,  and  had 
become  a  staple  crop;  and  the  numerous  rivers  of  the 
South  made  the  marketing  of  cotton  relatively  easy 
for  plantations  not  too  far  removed  from  the  seaboard. 
Little,  though,  could  be  sent  from  the  Northwest  over 
the  Alleghanies.  In  Kentucky  and  southern  Ohio  some 
cattle  were  raised  for  market,  but  to  drive  them  to 
Baltimore  or  Philadelphia  was  something  of  an  under- 
taking, and  consumed  nearly  all  of  the  profits.  The 
building  of  the  National  Turnpike  to  St.  Louis, 
through  Zanesville  and  Columbus,  Ohio;  Richmond, 
Indianapolis,  and  Terre  Haute,  Indiana;  and  Vandalia, 
Illinois,  opened  up  somewhat  a  new  territory,  while 
the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  through  New  York 
State,  in  1825,  provided  a  new  and  easier  route  for  the 
transportation  of  grains  from  the  West.  Wheat  from 
the  interior  could  now  be  shipped,  via  Lake  Erie  and 
the  canal  to  New  York,  for  sale  in  the  Eastern  and 
European  markets.  Wheat  now  displaced  corn  as  the 


«     tc 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE    13 

chief  money  crop  on  farms  not  too  far  removed  from 
connecting  navigable  water. 

Trading.  Even  up  to  1830  there  were  but  twenty- 
six  cities  in  the  United  States  of  over  8000  inhabitants, 
and  fourteen  of  these  had  less  than  12,000  of  popu- 
lation. A  number  of  small  towns  were  developing  in 
the  new  West,  however,  and  these  were  rapidly  becom- 
ing centers  for  local  trade.  The  crossroads  store  was 
also  becoming  common,  and  in  it  were  beginning  to 
be  found  a  number  of  the  new  manufactured  articles. 
There  was  little  money  as  yet  in  circulation,  especially 
in  the  West,  and  business  was  carried  on  chiefly  by 
barter.  Salt,  bears'  grease,  pelts,  and  corn  possessed 
fixed  values.  Even  taxes  were  paid  in  produce;  such 
units  as  half  of  a  beef,  a  quarter  of  venison,  a  peck  of 
corn,  and  a  half-peck  of  salt  were  legal  tender.  Grist- 
mills and  sawmills,  run  by  water-power,  were  begin- 
ning to  supersede  hand  mills,  where  grinding  and  saw- 
ing were  now  done  "  on  shares."  Shoes  were  soon 
substituted  for  moccasins,  and  woolen  and  linen  cloth 
for  buckskin.  The  tanning  of  hides  became  an  indus- 
try, and  harnessmakers,  wagonmakers,  wheelwrights, 
and  carpenters  began  to  be  in  demand.  Better  barns 
and  better  farmhouses  began  to  be  erected,  especially 
by  the  New  England  people,  and  life  in  the  wilderness, 
by  the  end  of  the  first  agricultural  period,  began  to 
lose  something  of  its  harshness  and  forbidding  aspect. 
The  rich  farms  of  Ohio  began  to  replace  the  heavily 
timbered  wilderness  which  met  the  early  pioneers. 


14  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

II.  1830-1860 

The  second  period  of  development.  The  second 
period  in  the  development  of  American  rural  life  may 
be  said  to  have  begun  about  1830  to  1835,  and  to  have 
extended  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  though 
to  the  westward  the  story  of  the  settling  of  Ohio  and 
Kentucky  was  repeated  during  this  second  period. 
During  this  period  farming  passed  from  the  local  and 
self-sufBcing  to  the  commercial  stage;  cities  and  manu- 
facturing began  to  develop  rapidly;  labor-saving  de- 
vices began  to  be  used  on  the  farms;  new  peoples  came; 
and  the  coming  of  the  railroads  changed  the  whole 
character  of  farming.  Intercommunication  began  to 
take  the  place  of  the  former  isolation;  civilization 
began  to  go  with  subsistence;  and  intelligent  farming 
began  to  supersede  an  unintelligent  dependence  upon 
luck.  Products  now  began  to  be  grown  for  the  market; 
the  steam  railroad  and  the  steamboat  provided  an 
easy  and  cheap  means  of  transportation;  and  the  flood 
of  farm  products  from  the  great  interior  now,  for  the 
first  time,  began  seriously  to  disturb  the  economic 
equilibrium  of  the  East  and  of  the  Old  World.  Agri- 
cultural societies  were  organized;  agricultural  fairs 
began  to  be  held;  agriculture  as  a  subject  began  to  be 
discussed;  a  substantial  effort  began  to  be  made  to 
improve  the  breeds  of  live  stock;  and  new  fruits  and 
orchard  stock  began  to  be  introduced.  New  migratory 
movements  from  the  worked-out  farms  of  the  East  to 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE  15 

the  richer  lands  of  the  West  now  began.  This  move- 
ment soon  carried  population  far  out  onto  the  prairies. 

A  period  of  transformation.  The  period  was  one  of 
rapid  expansion  and  transformation.  At  its  beginning 
nearly  everything  done  on  the  farm  was  done  by  hand 
labor.  Plowing,  harrowing,  and  the  drawing  of  loads 
formed  almost  the  only  exceptions.  Crops  were  sown 
and  harvested  only  with  the  greatest  of  effort.  At  the 
end  of  the  period  most  of  the  epoch-making  inventions 
in  agricultural  machinery  had  been  perfected  and 
were  being  introduced.  The  mower  was  patented  as 
early  as  1831,  the  reaper  in  1833,  the  thresher  by  1840, 
the  separator  in  1850,  and  the  steam-thresher  by  1860. 
The  machine  drill  superseded  hand-sowing;  the  two- 
horse  cultivator  superseded  the  hoe;  and  the  faster 
horse  superseded  the  slow  ox.  By  1865  every  process 
in  the  raising  of  wheat,  and  every  process  in  the  raising 
of  corn,  except  husking,  was  done  by  machinery. 

Specialization  in  crops  now  began  to  supersede 
general  subsistence  farming.  Cotton  rapidly  jumped  to 
a  place  of  first  importance  in  the  South.  As  this  crop 
demands  a  quantity  of  cheap  labor  at  certain  seasons 
only,  and  is  best  handled  on  large  plantations,  there 
was  a  large  exodus  of  the  poorer  Southern  whites  to 
Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  still  farther  west.  The  repeal 
of  the  English  Corn  Laws  in  1846,  by  which  the  tariflF 
was  removed  from  imported  foodstuffs,  still  further 
stimulated  agricultural  development  in  the  United 
States.   The  coming  of  thousands  of  educated  Ger- 


16  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

mans,  who  took  up  farms  and  settled  in  the  upper 
Mississippi  Valley  after  1848,  also  further  stimulated 
agricultural  production.  Butter-  and  cheese-making 
were  added  to  the  list  of  agricultural  industries  after 
about  1850,  as  was  also  truck-farming  in  certain 
regions.  Prices  for  all  kinds  of  farm  products  increased 
rapidly,  making  farming  a  much  more  profitable 
industry  than  it  had  been  before. 

Rise  of  commerce  and  manufacturing.  The  develop- 
ment of  cities  and  manufacturing  now  began.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  period  there  were  no  railways,  and 
all  transportation  was  by  pack-train,  horse  and  wagon, 
or  canal-boat.  By  1850  the  steam  roads  offered  con- 
tinuous rail  travel  from  North  Carolina  to  Maine 
along  the  coast,  had  reached  into  the  heart  of  the 
cotton  belt  of  the  South,  to  Buffalo  on  Lake  Erie,  and 
from  the  western  end  of  Lake  Erie  to  Cincinnati  and 
Chicago.  By  1860  the  steam  railways  had  been  built 
west  into  Iowa,  Missouri,  and  Arkansas,  and  thirty 
thousand  miles  of  rails  were  carrying  agricultural 
products  from  the  interior,  and  manufactured  pro- 
ducts from  the  seaboard  cities  back  to  the  interior. 
Cotton  was  king  in  the  South,  corn  and  winter  wheat 
in  the  North,  and  commerce  and  manufacturing  in  the 
East.  The  telegraph  had  been  perfected  in  1844,  and 
fifty  thousand  miles  of  wire  were  carrying  messages  by 
1860.  Edge  tools  were  now  made  in  this  country.  The 
platform  scale  and  the  sewing-machine  were  coming 
into  use.     Kerosene  lamps  were  in  their  beginning. 


18  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Improved  cookstoves  were  beginning  to  be  used,  and 
friction  matches  superseded  the  flint.  The  coal  meas- 
ures west  of  the  Alleghanies  had  been  opened,  and 
anthracite  in  the  East  had  been  put  to  use.  The  great 
work  of  steam  had  begun,  and  the  chimneys  of  factor- 
ies were  rising  over  the  land. 

Home  and  school.  A  little  more  leisure  had  come 
into  the  home  as  well,  and  the  school  of  books  began, 
in  part,  to  supersede  the  school  of  practical  experience 
for  the  children.  Farmhouses  and  barns  were  better 
built,  homes  were  made  more  attractive,  farms  were 
better  tilled  and  more  valuable,  gravel  roads  began  to 
supersede  the  corduroy,  and  rural  life  generally  began 
to  reflect  the  changes  and  improvements  in  the 
methods  of  living.  Numerous  little  towns,  the  nuclei 
of  future  cities,  were  springing  up  all  through  the 
upper  Mississippi  Valley,  as  they  had  done  a  genera- 
tion earlier  in  the  Middle  Atlantic  States.  Notwith- 
standing these  changes,  though,  rural  life  was  still 
simple,  and  travel  to  any  distance  was  the  exception 
rather  than  the  rule. 

III.   1860-1890 

Third  period  of  development.  The  third  period  in 
the  development  of  American  rural  life  began  about 
1860,  and  extended  up  to  about  1890  or  1895.  It  was 
characterized  by  the  greatest  agricultural  expansion 
the  world  had  ever  known.  The  Government  home- 
stead laws  of  1862  and  1864,  under  which  a  farm  of 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE    19 

one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  was  given  to  any  person 
who  would  actually  settle  on  the  land  and  live  there 
for  five  years,  greatly  stimulated  the  development. 
Up  to  1890,  quarter-section  farms  to  the  extent  of 
233,043,939  acres,  an  area  six  times  as  large  as  New 
England,  six  and  one  half  times  as  large  as  Illinois,  and 


100% 

Percentage  of  total  Land  Area:- 

to 

80 

East  Nortb-Central  Division 

^^.^^ 

— 



70 

^5^^;-.- 

\                                       \                  ":-^:= 

60 

.....-- ^"' — '"^'  ■    ""^m 

g^^i^,,^i^r 

50 

=== 

^^''''     '                                                       -^ 

40 

tf       -                    j                    ^                                                                                     ^:^ 

■-   -  -     -T 1                                                           -r^= 

30 

1                  -^^-                                             -^ 

20 

^^ 

^== 

i-^-.-                 '1           '^   i'      "  ■"-    1           ■  ■    1  ^      — 

10 

^^ 

1                 1                1                 1       ' 

^^ 

0 

Pio.  4.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FARMS 

more  than  a  half  larger  than  the  German  Empire, 
were  claimed  as  homesteads  by  new  settlers.  The 
opportunity  to  get  a  cleared  farm  of  rich  land  and 
without  price  soon  attracted  great  numbers  of  the 
more  intelligent  and  hardy  peasants  from  other  lands, 
and  a  great  influx  of  Canadians,  English,  Irish,  Ger- 
mans, and  Scandinavians  came  into  the  new  states  of 
the  upper  Mississippi  Valley.  Many  of  those  who  had 
settled  earlier  east  of  the  Mississippi  also  sold  their 


20 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


farms  and  went  to  the  West,  while  the  sons  of  many 
others  went,  leaving  their  parents  behind.  The  effect 
of  this  movement  on  the  development  of  farms  is  seen 
from  the  charts  on  this  and  the  preceding  page.  East 
of  the  Mississippi  the  settlement  and  improvement 
now  proceeded  more  slowly,  while  west  of  the  river  the 


Pia.  8.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PABMS 

settlement  and  improvement  of  the  land  were  very 
rapid.  It  was  also  seen  in  the  development  of  new 
states.  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado,  the  two  Dakotas, 
Montana,  Wyoming,  Idaho,  and  Washington  were 
added  as  states  by  1890,  —  all  essentially  agricultural 
states  and  all,  with  the  exception  of  Colorado  and 
Washington,  without  a  large  city  in  them. 

Inventions   and    developments.    The   first   trans- 
continental railway  was  completed  in  1869,  and  by 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE    «1 

1890  five  additional  railway  lines  linked  the  West  to 
the  East.  These,  with  their  branches  and  feeders, 
gathered  up  the  wheat,  corn,  and  cattle  of  the  West 
and  carried  it  to  Chicago,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Boston  for  shipment  to  other  lands.  The  United 
States  soon  became  the  granary  of  Europe,  and 
agriculture  became  a  large  and  an  important  business. 
By  1880  the  United  States  was  the  greatest  shipper  of 
grains  and  meats  in  the  world.  The  invention  of  the 
twine -binder,  about  1880,  settled  the  labor  problem 
involved  in  harvesting  and  made  wheat-growing  easier 
and  more  profitable;  while  the  patenting  of  the  roller- 
process  of  making  flour  made  spring  wheat  useful,  and 
settled  and  developed  the  great  Northwest.  Great 
cattle  ranges  also  were  developed  in  the  then  new 
West,  and  the  perfecting  of  the  refrigerator  car  in  1869 
made  the  shipment  of  dressed  beef  both  possible  and 
profitable.  The  beginning  of  the  export  of  dressed 
meats,  in  1870,  further  developed  the  cattle  industry. 
The  perfection  of  the  Babcock  milk -tester  and  the 
centrifugal  cream-separator,  about  1880,  gave  a  new 
impetus  to  the  dairy  industry,  and  the  application  of 
the  cold-storage  principle  shortly  after  added  materi- 
ally to  the  farmer's  range  of  markets.  Fruit-growing 
also  became  an  important  branch  of  agriculture  during 
this  third  period.  New  attention  was  now  given  to  the 
securing  of  better  breeds  of  stock,  and  we  also  note  the 
beginnings  of  an  extension  of  the  principle  of  selection 
to  both  seeds  and  trees. 


22  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  home-builder  farmer.  The  many  labor-saving 
inventions  introduced  not  only  made  farm  life  easier 
and  more  profitable,  but  the  great  increase  in  the  ease 
of  communication  made  it  less  isolated  and  more 
attractive.  Turnpikes  and  bridges  were  built  by  the 
counties,  better  houses. and  barns  were  built  by  the 
farmers,  and  many  improvements  to  the  land  were 
made.  Farm  land  began  to  increase  rapidly  in  value, 
after  the  depression  of  the  early  eighties  due  to  over- 
development, and  the  successful  farmer  began  to  ac- 
cumulate a  bank  account,  and  to  cultivate  relations 
with  the  adjoining  town  or  with  the  growing  city  which 
formed  the  county  seat.  He  and  his  wife  dressed  bet- 
ter, gave  their  children  more  advantages,  and  began  to 
enjoy  some  of  the  luxuries  as  well  as  the  necessities  of 
life.  He  remained,  however,  essentially  a  home-builder, 
loyal  to  his  country  neighborhood,  and  treasuring  his 
rural  friendships.  His  pride  was  in  his  broad  and  well- 
kept  acres,  his  horses  and  stock,  his  home,  his  barns 
and  machinery,  and  his  family.  He  was  strong, 
virile,  conscious  of  his  personal  worth,  opinionated, 
and  with  a  keen  sense  for  values,  politics,  and  often  for 
religion.  Such  he  continues  to-day,  in  many  parts  of 
our  land. 

Expansion  and  overdevelopment.  The  result  of 
these  many  inventions  and  developments  was  a  tre- 
mendous expansion  of  agriculture,  not  only  in  the 
new  lands  to  the  West,  but  in  the  older  states  to  the 
East  as  well.  Almost  simultaneously  there  was  a  great 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE    23 

development  of  wheat -growing  in  California  and 
Washington,  in  Russia,  and  in  Argentine,  as  well  as 
other  important  agricultural  developments  elsewhere. 
The  steam-train  and  the  steamship  gathered  up  the 
products  and  delivered  them  quickly  in  the  world's 
great  markets.  The  result  was  a  great  disturbance  in 


$100 
90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 


VaJue  per  Acre  of  Farm  Property 
United  States  as  a  whole 


Fia.  6.  VALUE  OF  FARM  PROPEETT    i 


economic  conditions:  for  a  time  an  overproduction,  a 
fall  in  prices  of  both  products  and  lands,  and,  for 
a  period,  much  discontent  among  the  farming  class. 
This  was  most  marked  in  the  decade  of  the  eighties. 
Gradually,  however,  these  conditions  changed.  With 
the  exhaustion  of  the  free  Government  lands,  the 
great  increase  in  population,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
a  readjustment  of  vocations  and  methods  of  distribu- 
tion, and  an  increasing  consumption  of  foodstuflPs  per 


S4 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


capita,  due  to  better  living,  the  prices  for  both  lands 
and  foodstuffs  have  recently  experienced  a  remarkable 
rise  in  values,  and  farming  has  recently  become  a  very 
profitable  undertaking. 

The  cityward  migration.    Along  with  these  many 
changes  during  this  third  period,  another  of  the  most 


Percentage  of  total  I^and  Area:- 
Umted  States  as  a  whole 


lOOj 
90 
80 
70 


Via.  7.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FARMS 

far-reaching  significance  for  country  life  now  began  to 
manifest  itself  strongly.  It  had  its  beginnings  much 
earlier,  but  became  marked  now  for  the  first  time. 
This  was  the  tendency  of  country  boys  to  leave  the 
farm  and  go  to  the  rising  cities.  The  fascination  of 
the  city  and  the  large  prizes  which  might  be  won  there 
began  to  attract  the  strong^andjhe  self-reliantamong 
the  young,jaen  of  the_country.  This  tendency  grew 
with  time,  and  finally  resulted  in  a  great  migration 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE    25 


cityward.  In  some  states,  particularly  in  New  York 
and  New  England,  it  led  to  the  abandonment  of  many 
farms,  while  to  the  West  it  led  to  the  draining-off  of 
many  of  the  most  promising  young  men  of  the  farming 
class.  The  lack  of  opportunity  and  the  lack  of  social 

^0 

'100 
95 
90 
85 
80 
76 
70 
65 
60 
55 
60 
45 
40 
35 
30 
26 


In  Cities  of  8,000  or  over 


In  smaller  Incorporated  Places 

(  Estimsteii  befoK  1880  } 

In  Rural  Districts 


Fia.  8.  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION  BY  DECADES 

Percentage  of  the  total  population  of  the  United  States  at  earh  census  in  cities, 
towns,  and  rursj  districts.    Note  the  growth  of  the  city  after  about  1850. 

prestige  in  the  country  also  sent  many  of  the  best  of 
the  country  girls  to  the  city  as  well.  By  1890  the  rural 
conditions  were  such,  due  in  part  to  a  temporary  over- 
development of  agriculture  throughout  the  world,  and 
in  part  to  the  tendency  of  the  education  provided  by 
the  rural  school,  that  boys  and  girls  of  energy  and 


26  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

ambition  left  the  farm  for  the  city  at  the  first  opportu- 
nity/ Farming  as  a  life  career  at  that  time  appealed 
strongly  to  but  few.  The  result  was  manifested  in  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  cities  after  1890,  and  in  the  partial 
depletion  of  many  rural  communities. 

Anotherclass  of  country  people  now  began  to  leave 
Jhe^rural  districts  for  the  cities.  With  the  rapid  intro- 
duction of  machinery  and  labor-saving  devices  during 
this  third  period,  the  farmer  was  able  to  dispense  with 
many  of  his  former  '*  hands."  Fewer  laborers  were 
needed  to  do  the  work  which  once  required  the  labor 
of  many,  while  the  introduction  of  complicated  and 
expensive  machinery  demanded  that  the  man  who  ran 
it  should  have  a  good  operative  head.  Many  of  these 
former  *'  hands  "  belonged  to  that  class  of  l<^ss  intel- 
ligent and  lesg_progressive  rural  people,  who  neither 
owned  nor  leased  land,  but  were  content  to  work  for 
others.  These  now  had  to  go  to  the  city  to  find  a 
market  for  their  labor.  The  result  was  to  send  from 
the  country  to  the  city  most  of  its  poor,  improvident, 
and  shiftless  people,  as  well  as  many  of  its  stronger 
personalities. 

Saving  in  farm  labor.  The  saving  in  human  labor 
by  machinery  was  very  great.  In  the  case  of  nine 
important  farm  crops,  the  increase  in  efficiency  of  a 
single  man,  between  1830  and  1895,  has  been  estimated 

*  The  census  of  1890  showed  that  66  per  cent  of  the  area  of 
Illinois  was  then  diminishing  in  population,  43  per  cent  of  the  area 
of  Iowa,  61  per  cent  of  Ohio,  and  83  per  cent  of  New  York. 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  RURAL  LIFE    27 

at  500  per  cent,  while  in  the  case  of  barley  it  has  been 
estimated  at  2240  per  cent.  From  1840  to  1900  in  the 
case  of  eight  important  cereals,  the  increase  in  the  rate 
of  production  was  twice  as  fast  as  the  rate  of  increase 
in  the  total  population.  Harvesting,  under  the  old 
methods,  required  more  than  eight  times  the  number 
of  laborers  now  required,  while   threshing  required 

18«Q|^^^^^[[]^]J  I      I  Rural  J|City 


1300  [_ 


lucieaae  in  Populatlou 


Increase  in  Production  -  8  Cereals 

Fio.  9.    RELATIVE  RATES  OF  INCREASE  IN  POPULATION  AND 
PRODUCTION 


from  fifteen  to  thirty  times  the  present  number. 
Figures  from  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture show  that  in  1855  the  amount  of  labor  ex- 
pended in  producing  a  bushel  of  com  in  the  United 
States  was  four  hours  and  thirty-five  minutes.  Under 
modern  conditions  the  amount  of  time  required  is  only 
forty-one  minutes.  With  wheat  the  difference  is  even 
more  marked.  In  1855  three  hours  of  labor  were 
expended  on  each  bushel  of  wheat;  at  present  a  bushel 
of  wheat  requires  only  ten  minutes  of  labor.  In  the 
case  of  a  farm  worker  it  has  been  estimated  that  his 


28  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

efficiency  was  still  further  increased  86  per  cent  by 
machinery  between  1870  and  1900. 

The  result.  All  of  these  changes  have  meant  not 
only  an  increase  in  the  profitableness  of  farming,  but  a 
great  amelioration  in  the  conditions  surrounding  farm 
life  as  well.  They  have  also  created  a  demand  for 
larger  intelligence,  wider  knowledge,  and  larger  ability 
on  the  part  of  the  farmer.  He  has  been  able  to  make 
farming  a  business  instead  of  merely  a  means  of  sub- 
sistence, and  to  purchase  many  of  the  more  desirable 
modern  conveniences  and  comforts  to  replace  the 
primitive  pioneer  conditions. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Explain  what  is  meant  by  the  self-sufficing  stage  of  agriciiltural 
development. 

2.  Where  was  the  Erie  Canal  ? 

3.  Why  did  wheat  supersede  com  as  the  money  crop  after  the 
opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  ? 

4.  Explain  what  is  meant  by  the  statement  that  during  this  period 
,  farming  passed  from  the  self-sufficing  to  the  commercial  stage. 

6.  Explain  why  the  coming  of  the  railroads  changed  the  whole 
character  of  farming. 

6.  Contrast  farm  life  in  1830  with  that  of  1860. 

7.  Contrast  these  conditions  again  with  conditions  in  1890. 

8.  Contrast  the  market  facilities  of  1850  and  1890,  and  show  the 
effect  of  these  on  farming  as  an  industry. 

9.  Contrast  the  home-life  conditions  of  1850  and  1890,  and  point 
out  how  such  changes  naturally  lead  to  s  demand  for  more  and 
for  better  educational  facilities.  • 

10.  Why  would  the  cityward  migration  naturally  draw  off  both  the 
best  and  the  poorest  of  rural  people  ? 

11.  What  effect  would  this  have  on  rural  life  and  progress  ? 

12.  Without  machinery  could  farming  ever  have  developed  into  a 
business  undertaking  ? 

13.  What  per  cent  of  your  state  is  in  farms  ?    Improved  farms  ? 


CHAPTER  II 

NEW  RURAL-LIFE  CONDITIONS 

The  fourth-period  development.  The  changes  which 
mark  the  fourth  period  in  the  agricultural  develop- 
ment of  the  United  States  began  about  1890,  and  are 
still  in  process  of  evolution.  These  changes  are  not  by 
any  means  universal  as  yet,  as  in  many  rural  communi- 
ties the  conditions  which  marked  the  third  period  still 
prevail.  Sometimes  even  the  second-period  conditions 
are  still  found  in  isolated  localities.  Each  year,  though, 
sees  new  regions  invaded  by  the  changes  which  have 
marked  what  we  call  the  fourth  period  of  our  agri- 
cultural development,  and  an  intensification  of  these 
changes.  The  change  to  the  fourth-period  conditions 
has  been  most  marked  in  regions  of  one-crop  farming, 
in  the  vicinity  of  large  cities,  and  particularly  in  the 
states  of  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley.  These  changes 
are  not  confined  to  any  one  locality,  though,  for  one 
finds  such  conditions  manifesting  themselves  from 
Maine  to  California,  and  from  Minnesota  to  Florida. 
The  chief  reason  why  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  has 
been  most  affected  is  that  it  is  the  center  of  the  agri- 
cultural life  of  the  nation.  This  is  well  shown  by  the 
two  maps  which  face  pages  30  and  81  of  this  chap- 
ter, and  by  the  table  inserted  below.  All  of  the  great 
staple  farm  crops,  except  rice,  tobacco,  and  cotton, 


80 


RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 


TABLE,  SHOWING  FARMING  CONDITIONS  IN  FIFTEExN 
LEADING  AGRICULTURAL  STATES,  1920 


State 

Per  cent 
of  total 
population 
in  rural 
districts 

Per  cent 
of  lands 
in  farms 

Average 
size  of 
farms, 

in  acres 

Average 

value  of 

farm  land, 

per  acre 

New  York 

17.3 
36.2 
49.4 
32.1 
63.6 

38.9 
52.7 
55.9 

53.4 
68.7 
65.1 
73.4 

74.9 
78.3 
67.6 

67.7 
90.2 
91.3 
89.0 
94.1 

51.0 
62.6 
58.4 

79.1 
87.9 
86.8 
75.7 

66.1 
59.7 
23.8 

106.8 
91.6 
102.7 
134.8 
156.8 

96.9 
117.0 
169.3 

132.2 
339.4 

274.8 
166.4 

81.9 

76.4 

261.5 

$  38.45 

Ohio 

85.69 

Indiana 

104.57 

Illinois 

164.20 

Iowa 

199.52 

Michigan 

50.40 

Wisconsin 

73.09 

Minnesota 

91.00 

Missouri 

74.60 

Nebraska 

78.87 

Kansas 

54.50 

Oklahoma 

36.66 

Georgia 

35.28 

Alabama 

21.24 

Texas 

26.64 

are  raised  chiefly  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley 
States.  The  central  points  for  the  number  of  farms, 
for  improved  farm  acreage,  for  farm-land  values,  for 
the  production  of  corn,  and  for  gross  farm  income  are 
all  located  in  the  State  of  Illinois;  while  the  centers 
for  wheat  and  oat  production  are  across  the  river  in 
Iowa.  New  York,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa  are 
the  largest  dairy-products  producers;  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Missouri  are  the  greatest  swine  and 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE  CONDITIONS  31 

domestic-fowl  states;  and  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Missouri 
are  the  center  of  the  draft-animal  industry.  As  a 
recent  writer  has  put  it,  this  central  region  is  fairly 
dripping  agricultural  fatness.^  Excepting  cotton  in  the 
South  and  cattle  in  Texas,  no  other  agricultural  region 
in  the  United  States  approaches  it  in  wealth.  Because 
this  is  the  case,  the  changes  to  the  fourth-period  con- 
ditions have  been  rendered  easier  here. 

Fourth-period  characteristics.  The  most  prominent 
characteristics  of  the  fourth  period  in  the  agricultural 
development  of  the  United  States  have  been  three: 
(1)  the  gradual  urbanization  of  rural  life;  (2)  the 
reorganization  and  commercializing  of  the  agricultural 
industry;  and  (3)  the  partial,  and  in  some  districts  the 
complete,  substitution  of  a  system  of  farm  tenantry 
for  farm  management  by  the  native  owner.  Farming 
has  become  so  profitable  in  the  richer  agricultural 
regions  that  it  has  now  become  a  commercial  business, 
to  be  managed  along  strictly  business  lines.  We  will 
consider  each  of  these  fourth-period  characteristics  in 
order. 

I.   THE  GRADUAL  URBANIZATION  OF  RURAL  LIFE 

Changes  in  rural  living.  During  the  past  two 
decades  very  important  changes  have  taken  place  in 
the  conditions  surrounding  rural  life  itself.  Except  in 
sparsely  settled  regions,  or  where  primitive  conditions 

*  "The  Heart  of  the  United  States,"  by  James  P.  Monroe,  in 
Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1908. 


32  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

still  persist,  the  old  isolation  has  practically  ended,  and 
many  of  the  conveniences  and  comforts  enjoyed  by  city 
people  are  now  found  in  the  better  farm  homes.  This 
change  in  the  conditions  of  living  has  taken  place  chiefly 
since  1890,  and  has  been  particularly  marked  during  the 
past  five  to  ten  years.  Everywhere  there  has  been  a 
marked  softening  of  the  harsh  conditions  and  limita- 
tions which  once  surrounded  rural  life.  As  a  result,  in 
the  wealthier  and  more  progressive  farming  regions, 
the  well-to-do  farmer  of  to-day  can  provide  in  his 
home  almost  all  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
enjoyed  by  his  city  relations. 

New  rural  conveniences.  The  telephone,  twenty 
years  ago  but  little  used,  has  recently  come  to  be 
almost  one  of  the  necessities  of  a  farmer's  life  and 
work.  A  generation  ago,  if  he  broke  part  of  a  piece  of 
machinery,  needed  information  as  to  markets,  or  had 
sickness  in  the  family,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but 
hitch  up  a  horse  and  drive  to  town.  To-day  with  the 
local-exchange  and  long-distance  telephone,  he  may 
order  the  piece  of  machinery  by  catalogue  number, 
find  out  about  the  markets  or  the  loading  of  cars,  or 
summon  a  doctor  or  nurse.  If  he  needs  to  telegraph 
to  Boston  or  Chicago  on  business,  or  to  his  relatives  in 
Dakota  or  California,  he  can  telephone  his  message, 
have  a  night  letter  sent,  and  have  a  reply  telephoned 
back  to  him  when  received,  and  have  it  all  charged 
to  him  on  his  monthly  telephone  bill.  The  rural-mail 
delivery  and  the  parcels  post  have  also  come  to  his 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE  CONDITIONS  S3 

assistance.  Instead  of  getting  mail  or  a  package  or 
posting  a  letter  only  when  the  work  or  the  weather 
would  permit  of  his  going  to  town,  the  rural-mail 
delivery  wagon  comes  to  his  gate  each  day  to  bring 
letters,  papers,  and  packages,  and  to  take  them  away. 
With  a  Sears-Roebuck  or  a  Wanamaker  catalogue  and 
a  bank  check,  he  and  his  wife  can  supply  their  needs 
without  leaving  the  house,  and  have  the  goods  de- 
livered by  parcels  post  at  their  door.  Instead  of,  or 
to  supplement,  the  local  weekly  newspaper,  its  inside 
filled  with  "  boiler-plate "  and  its  outside  with  local 
advertisements  and  news,  the  farmer  now  receives  his 
daily  metropolitan  newspaper,  with  its  news  of  the 
world,  national  and  state  politics,  and  market  reports. 
The  monthly  magazines,  with  their  club  rates  and  pre- 
miums, have  also  found  their  way  into  the  farmer's 
home,  and  serve  to  create  new  interests  for  the  family 
and  to  weaken  the  old  local  attachments. 

Better  homes.  The  farmer's  home,  too,  has  greatly 
changed  in  the  past  two  decades.  New  and  better 
farmhouses  everywhere  meet  the  eye.  The  railroads, 
during  the  last  fifteen  years,  have  done  a  large  busi- 
ness in  carrying  lumber  for  building  purposes  from 
Washington  and  Oregon  to  the  farming  sections  of 
the  western  half  of  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley,  while 
the  eastern  half  has  obtained  its  supply  from  sources 
farther  east.  This  lumber  has  gone  into  new  farm- 
houses, barns,  and  fences.  The  perfection  of  the  long- 
distance transmission  line  for  electric  current  and  the 


34  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

building  of  power  lines  through  the  country,  have 
introduced  electricity  into  the  homes  for  lighting  and 
for  power,  and  the  electric  light  has  become  so  cheap, 
so  convenient,  and  so  desirable  that  farmers  are  mak- 
ing connections  whenever  they  can  be  had.  Long- 
distance high-pressure  gas  lines  are  also  to  be  found  in 
an  increasing  number  of  the  more  thickly  populated 
regions,  and  in  places  gas  is  being  introduced  for  cook- 
ing. A  furnace  in  the  house  is  now  becoming  a  common 
convenience.  With  a  water  tank,  a  gasoline  engine  or 
an  electric  pump,  or  even  a  windmill,  running  water 
and  bathroom  conveniences  are  possible  and  are  now 
found  in  many  of  the  newer  farm  homes,  while  the 
perfection  of  the  septic  tank  has  settled  the  problem 
of  sewage  disposal. 

As  a  rule,  the  newer  farmhouses  are  much  more 
attractive  and  are  much  better  arranged  than  the 
farmhouses  of  a  generation  ago.  Better  furniture, 
better  table  appointments,  and  better  equipment 
generally  have  been  felt  necessary,  even  where  the 
house  itself  has  not  been  improved.  Grand  Rapids 
upholstered  furniture,  white  table-linen,  Rogers 
Brothers  silverware,  and  "  hangings  "  have  displaced 
the  simpler  furniture,  red  tablecloth,  Sheffield  knives, 
and  lace  curtains  of  a  generation  ago;  pianos  and 
gramophones  have  taken  the  place  of  the  earlier 
organs  and  accordions;  and  the  latest  rag-time  or  the 
opera  by  Caruso  or  Calve  now  take  the  place  of  the 
Gospel  Hymns,  once  so  commonly  played  and  sung. 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE   CONDITIONS  35 

The  work  done  in  the  farmhouse  has  also  greatly 
decreased.  Both  under  and  outer  clothing  are  bought 
now,  and  not  made.  Dresses,  hats,  and  suits,  both 
for  the  young  and  for  the  adults,  are  now  bought  at 
the  stores.  Cooperative  creameries  make  the  butter 
and  the  cheese.  Laundry  wagons  not  uncommonly  call 
for  part  of  the  washing.  Even  fruits,  jellies,  and  canned 
goods  are  frequently  bought  at  the  town  store. 

The  new  rural  life.  The  farmer's  life,  too,  has 
materially  changed.  The  old  isolation  and  the  narrow 
provincialism  are  rapidly  ending.  He  and  his  wife  are 
no  longer  so  markedly  "of  the  country."  They,  and 
particularly  their  children,  dress  much  better  than 
formerly.  The  family  is  no  longer  limited  in  motion 
by  the  traveling  ability  of  its  horse.  The  interurban 
trolley  will  now  take  them  to  town  almost  any  hour. 
The  automobile,  too,  has  further  extended  the  farmer's 
ability  to  travel.  By  the  close  of  1920  there  were  prac- 
tically ten  million  automobiles  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  rich  farming  states  stood  at  the  top  in  the 
percentage  of  the  population  owning  cars.  Hard 
roads  have  come  with  the  automobile,  and  a  trip  to 
town,  which  once  consumed  the  better  part  of  a  day, 
is  now  only  a  matter  of  an  hour  or  so.  It  is  easy  to  go 
in  in  the  evening,  after  the  day's  work  is  done.  The 
moving-picture  show  and  the  theater,  once  unknown, 
now  offer  their  attractions.  Sunday,  holiday,  and 
vacation  trips  are  now  taken  in  the  car,  and  often 
long  distances  are  covered  on  the  vacation  trips. 


36  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  town  movement.  The  most  immediate  eflfect  of 
these  many  and  almost  revolutionary  changes  in  the 
nature  of  life  on  the  farm  is  that  the  farmer  soon  loses 
the  home  feeling,  and  begins  to  spend  his  income  in 
the  enjoyment  of  life.  The  economic  success  of  the 
farmer  too  often  proves  to  be  his  undoing.  Soon  the 
attractions  and  still  greater  advantages  of  the  city 
attract  him,  and  his  family  urge  it,  to  such  an  extent, 
that  he  rents  his  farm  to  tenants,  often  closing  his 
farmhouse  entirely,  and  the  whole  family  moves  to 
town  to  enjoy  its  social  and  its  educational  advantages. 
The  earlier  movement,  in  the  third  period,  was  chiefly 
one  of  individuals;  now,  in  the  fourth  period,  it  is 
chiefly  one  of  whole  families.  In  the  upper  part  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  in  the  richest  of  our  farming 
regions,  this  cityward  movement  has  become  so 
marked  that  in  some  portions  of  it  entire  townships 
have  been  deserted  by  the  old  farming  stock.  This 
family  movement  first  began  about  1890,  but  within 
the  past  ten  years  it  has  gone  on  at  a  rapidly  increasing 
rate. 

II.    THE   REORGANIZATION   AND    COMMERCIALIZING 
OF  AGRICULTURE 

A  new  type  of  agriculture.  This  began  much  earlier, 
but  did  not  become  a  strongly  marked  tendency  until 
after  about  1890.  Since  1900  the  change  has  become 
very  marked.  It  has  been  caused  by  the  general  intro- 
duction of  scientific  machinery,  methods,  and  processes ; 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE  CONDITIONS  37 

by  the  development  of  farm  managers,  capable  of 
handling  farm  business  on  a  large  scale;  and  by  a 
world-wide  increase  in  the  demand  for  foodstuffs, 
which  has  materially  increased  the  value  of  all  farm 
products.  These  influences  have  recently  combined  to 
make  farming  very  profitable. 

The  introduction  of  scientific  methods  and  processes 
is  due  chiefly  to  the  great  work  of  our  state  agricultural 
colleges.  These  were  first  provided  for  by  the  famous 
Morrill  Land-Grant  Bill,  passed  by  Congress  in  1862.* 
A  number  had  begun  instruction  by  1870,  and  by  1885 
many  of  these  had  become  effective  educational  insti- 
tutions. In  1887  Congress  granted  further  national 
aid  2  to  establish  an  agricultural  experiment  station  in 
connection  with  each  of  these  state  institutions,  and 
in  1890^  the  National  Government  granted  still  fur- 
ther additional  aid  to  each  state  for  the  maintenance  of 
these  colleges.  The  results  of  these  grants  have  been 
the  creation  of  fifty  *  such  institutions  for  the  instruc- 

^  Each  state  was  given  80,000  acres  of  pubUc  land  for  each  Senator 
and  Representative  in  Congress,  to  be  used  to  endow  a  college  of 
agriculture  and  mechanical  arts.  The  gran*^  varied  from  90,000 
acres  to  Delaware,  to  990,000  acres  to  New  York.  In  all,  count- 
ing other  recent  land  grants  to  new  states  for  the  same  purpose, 
11,367,832  acres,  an  area  one  half  as  large  as  the  State  of  Indiana, 
have  been  given  to  found  and  endow  the  agricultural  colleges. 

2  The  sum  of  $15,000  a  year  to  each  state,  since  increased  to 
$30,000  a  year,  to  maintain  an  agricultural  experiment  station  iD 
connection  with  the  college  of  agriculture. 

*  The  sum  of  $15,000  a  year  to  each  state,  since  increased  to 
$50,000,  to  help  maintain  the  agricultural  college. 

*  One  in  Hawaii  and  one  in  Porto  Rico,  as  well  as  one  in  each  of 
the  states. 


S8  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tion  of  white  students,  and  sixteen,  in  the  South,  for 
the  instruction  of  colored  students  as  well.  Such  in- 
stitutions as  Cornell  University,  and  the  state  uni- 
versities of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  California  stand 
as  types  of  the  best  of  these  institutions,  and  these 
have  been  worth  to  these  states  hundreds  of  times 
what  they  have  cost. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture.  Another  influence 
of  fundamental  importance  in  the  development  of 
scientific  methods  and  processes  and  in  improving 
farm  life  has  been  the  great  work  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture.  This  was  established  as 
a  bureau  in  1862,  and  created  a  department,  with  a 
secretary  in  the  Cabinet  of  the  President,  in  1889.  Its 
real  development  dates  from  about  this  time,  while 
under  the  administration  of  Secretary  WJUgn,  who 
was  appointed  in  1897  and  continued  in  office  until 
1913,  the  development  was  very  rapid.  From  a  de- 
partment of  488  employees  and  costing  $1,134,481  in 
1889,  it  grew  to  one  of  12,704  employees  and  costing 
$21,537,781  in  1912.  The  work  of  this  department  has 
been  far-reaching,  and  it  has  rendered  greater  service 
in  advancing  the  public  welfare  than  any  other  depart- 
ment of  the  National  Government.  The  agricultural 
colleges  have  been  stimulated  into  new  activity;  crops 
of  all  kinds  have  been  improved;  new  methods  of 
farming  have  been  pointed  out;  new  varieties  of  grain, 
trees,  and  stock  have  been  introduced;  diseases  have 
been  eradicated;  and  by  means  of  experiments,  demon- 


NEW  RURAL-LIFE  CONDITIONS  39 

strations,  publications,  and  lectures,  a  new  interest  in 
agricultural  improvement  and  development  has  been 
awakened.  The  department  has  also  been  a  training 
school  in  which  hundreds  of  agricultural  experts  have 
been  prepared  for  service  elsewhere. 

New  agricultural  development.  Largely  as  a  result 
of  the  labors  of  the  agricultural  colleges,  and  of  the 
National  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington, 
agricultural  education  has  been  placed  on  a  firm  foun- 
dation, and  practical  and  helpful  assistance  has  been 
extended  to  farmers  all  over  the  United  States,  and 
in  thousands  of  ways.  Stock  and  seed  breeding  and 
testing  have  been  developed  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
greatly  increase  productiveness  and  profits,^  while 
disease  eradication  among  plants  and  animals  has 
greatly  reduced  the  former  heavy  mortality.  The 
fruit-growing  and  dairy  industries  have  been  devel- 
oped into  great  businesses  in  themselves.  New  agri- 
cultural regions  have  been  opened;  new  grains  and 
fruits  introduced  into  old  regions;  new  methods  of 
marketing  and  preserving  demonstrated;  and  new 
bookkeeping  methods  have  been  employed.  Free 
printed  matter,  farmers*  institutes,  and  agricultural 
demonstration  trains  have  carried  practical  informa- 

*  A  splendid  illustration  of  this  has  been  the  development  of  a 
new  seed  barley,  which  has  standardized  the  grain  and  doubled  the 
yield.  This  was  done  during  the  past  ten  years  at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin,  and  is  described  in  the  World's  Work  for  December,  1912. 
The  financial  gain  from  this  new  grain  is  estimated  at  $12,000,000  a 
year  in  Wisconsin  alone. 


40  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tion  direct  to  the  homes,  and  a  new  interest  in  agri- 
cultural education,  both  for  adults  and  for  children, 
has  everywhere  become  prominent. 

New  markets.  Improvements  in  marketing  have 
also  contributed  much  to  the  changes  noted  in  this 
fourth-period  development.  No  longer,  in  most  sec- 
tions, do  small  loads  have  to  be  taken  long  distances 
to  town  over  a  muddy  road  to  be  sold  or  exchanged. 
Good  wagon  roads,  branch  steam  roads,  the  interurban 
trolley,  and  the  automobile  truck  have  greatly  changed 
the  nature  of  the  haul;  while  express  trains,  refrigera- 
tor cars,  and  the  telegraph  enable  the  farmer  to  reach 
the  distant  markets.  The  trolley  car  or  the  freight  car 
on  the  farmer's  siding  in  the  afternoon  is  in  the  distant 
city  in  the  morning.  The  peach -grower  of  western 
Michigan  sends  his  peaches  to  Pittsburg  and  Buffalo; 
the  garden-truck-grower  of  the  South  can  market  his 
products  in  every  Northern  city;  the  grower  of  water- 
melons in  Oklahoma  finds  his  markets  in  St.  Louis,  St. 
Paul,  and  Chicago;  the  butter-maker  of  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota  reaches  the  markets  of  the  North  Central 
States;  the  orchardist  and  vineyardist  of  California 
finds  his  markets  in  the  Eastern  cities  and  in  Europe; 
and  the  grower  of  apples  in  Oregon  and  Washington 
supplies  the  hotels  of  New  York  and  Chicago  with 
fruit.  Specialization,  standardization,  and  cooperative 
marketing  have  in  a  generation  created  new  markets 
and  greatly  changed  the  nature  of  agricultural  life. 
Farm  products  are  no  longer  bartered  in  the  village. 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE  CONDITIONS  41 

but  are  sold  wholesale  to  regular  dealers  in  exchange 
for  bank  checks.  In  some  branches  of  farm  work  the 
farmer  has  little  marketing  to  do,  he  being  able  to  sell 
his  products  "  standing,"  or  on  the  hoof  or  tree,  to 
the  packer  or  shipper,  while  elsewhere  cooperative 
exchanges  or  associations,  managed  by  the  farmers 
themselves,  undertake  the  shipping  and  marketing 
process.  The  old-type  farmer,  with  a  few  fruit  trees, 
two  or  three  cows,  and  a  few  acres  of  grain,  is  being 
crowded  more  and  more  to  the  wall  by  the  new-type 
farmer,  of  either  the  farm-specialist  or  the  intensive- 
farmer  type.  Agriculture  has  progressed  from  the  self- 
sufficing  and  the  barter  stage  to  that  of  a  well-organ- 
ized business  undertaking,  requiring  capital,  scientific 
knowledge,  and  business  foresight  and  energy. 

Agricultural  expansion.  The  remarkable  develop- 
ment of  agriculture  in  the  United  States  during  the 
past  two  decades  may  be  seen  from  the  chart  on  f>age 
42,  showing  our  surplus  for  export. 

Since  1890  we  have  about  reached  the  end  of  our 
good  free  agricultural  land  for  homes,  and  the  efforts 
to  secure  new  lands  have  led  to  the  proposal  and 
development  of  large  irrigation  and  drainage  schemes, 
in  the  South  and  West,  and  under  both  state  and 
federal  control.  The  great  world-wide  increase  in  city 
population  and  in  the  number  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facturing industries,  all  of  whom  are  food  and  clothing 
consumers  but  not  producers,  coupled  with  a  world- 
wide increase  in  the  standard  of  living  and  the  per 


"  Five  Year 
Prewar  Period 


War  Period 


O   »H    N    M 

O    O    tr^    <r^ 


^  \a  to  t- 
^^  o  o  o  o 

C^    O     O     O     C75 


OOOOi-HiMCOTj<iOtob-000>0 


®  2  - 


NEW  RUR.U.-LIFE  CONDITIONS 


43 


capita  food  and  clothing  consumption  of  people,  have 
created  much  greater  demands  for  fruits,  grains, 
meats,  hides,  cotton,  and  wool  than  heretofore.  The 
result  has  been  that  we,  as  a  nation,  are  already  expe- 
riencing the  beginnings  of  a  time  when,  as  the  political 
economist  states  it,  "  the  increase  in  population  begins 


$230 


Fio.  12a.    FARM  PROPERTY  VALUES 

to  press  on  the  means  of  subsistence,"  and  we  see  this 
evidenced  in  the  constantly  rising  values  of  agricul- 
tural land  and  of  all  agricultural  products,  as  well  as 
shoes  and  clothing.  Since  1900  but  little  new  agicu  1- 
tural  or  grazing  land  has  been  opened. 

The  future.  These  conditions  will  not  be  temporary 
or  transient,  but  have  come  to  stay,  and  will  become 
more  pronounced  with  time.   In  the  mean  time  our 


44  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

population  is  increasing  very  rapidly,  and  this  increase 
must  be  fed  and  clothed.  At  the  present  rate  of  in- 
crease we  shall  have  a  population  of  150,000,000  by 
1935,  and  200,000,000  by  1960.  How  to  feed  such  a 
population  as  is  just  ahead  of  us  is  one  of  the  big 
problems  for  the  future  to  solve.  In  all  probability, 
within  the  lifetime  of  children  now  born,  all  export  of 
foodstuffs  will  have  ceased,  and  even  the  rich  United 
States  will  experience  a  serious  shortage  of  bread.  In 
beef  to  eat  and  hides  for  shoes  we  are  already  begin- 
ning to  experience  such  a  shortage.  From  now  on  we 
may  look  upon  farming  as  being  a  capitalized  indus- 
try, calling  for  knowledge  and  executive  ability,  and 
attracting  men  of  capital  and  brains.  The  man  of 
small  energy  or  capacity,  the  novice,  the  man  lacking 
in  scientific  knowledge,  and  the  man  of  little  or  no 
capital  will  find  it  increasingly  difficult  to  avoid  be- 
ing pushed  to  the  wall  in  the  new  agricultural  busi- 
ness which  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  has  seen 
developed  in  our  land. 

The  reorganization  and  commercialization  of  Amer- 
ican agriculture  has  been  accompanied  by  two  develop- 
ments, each  of  which  is  causing  some  concern  to  those 
interested  in  the  preservation  of  rural  institutions. 
The  first  is  farming  as  a  business  and  with  farms  under 
the  control  of  a  scientific  farm  manager;  the  other  is 
the  marked  increase  in  farm  tenantry.  Of  the  two,  the 
latter  is  the  more  common  and,  from  a  social  point  of 
view,  far  the  more  serious. 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE  CONDITIONS  45 

Commercial  large-scale  farming.  Over  one  per  cent 
of  the  farm  land  of  the  United  States  is  still  in  farm 
tracts  of  one  thousand  acres  or  more.  The  acreage  in 
such  tracts  naturally  is  greater  in  the  West  than  in  the 
East.  Many  of  these  tracts  are  held  for  speculation, 
and  will  be  subdivided  and  sold  in  small  parcels  later 
on.  This  will  naturally  tend  to  increase  the  number  of 
farms  and  farmers,  and  to  decrease  the  average  size  of 
the  farms.  This  subdivision  of  large  estates  and  the 
creation  of  small  farms  is  a  good  thing  for  the  state, 
and  may  be  expected  to  go  on  as  population  increases 
in  density  and  farm  lands  increase  in  value.  In  places, 
however,  the  opposite  tendency  frequently  manifests 
itself,  and  large  areas  are  being  bought  up  by  com- 
panies of  large  capital,  to  be  farmed  under  farm  man- 
agers and  according  to  thorough  business  methods.  A 
seventeen-thousand-acre  tract  is  reported  near  Little 
Rock,  Arkansas;  a  one-hundred-thousand-acre  farm, 
in  southern  Texas,  managed  along  careful  financial 
lines,  has  recently  been  described;  ^  a  Chicago  com- 
pany recently  drained  a  million  acres  of  swamp  land 
for  rice  farming  in  Louisiana;  a  number  of  British 
individuals  and  companies  have  recently  bought  up 
large  areas  in  the  South  and  West,  for  purely  business 
farming;  the  Solano  Irrigated  Farms  Company  has 
recently  been  organized  in  California  to  farm,  by 
scientific  methods  and  as  a  business  proposition,  a 
tract  of  thirty-three  thousand  acres  of  rich  delta  land. 
*  See  World's  Work  for  January,  1913. 


w 

46  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Similar  business  farming  companies  now  exist  and  are 
being  organized  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  for  the 
purpose  of  farming  large  tracts  of  land,  and  accord- 
ing to  department-store  methods.  In  the  South  this 
means  farming  with  Negro  day  labor;  in  the  North  and 
West,  often  with  cheap  foreign  labor.  It  frequently 
results  in  a  marked  development  of  the  acres  culti- 
vated, —  new  towns,  railroads,  industries,  and  busi- 
ness; but  it  creates  new  social  conditions  in  rural 
society  which  call  for  difiFerent  social,  religious,  and 
educational  treatment  from  that  which  satisfied  the 
needs  of  an  earlier  and  simpler  agricultural  situation. 

PER  CENT  OF  TOTAL  ACREAGE  UNDER  FARM 
MANAGERS 


Division 


1.  New  England  States 

2.  Middle  Atlantic  States 

3.  East  North  Central  States . 

4.  West  North  Central  States 
6.  South  Atlantic  States 

6.  East  South  Central  States. 

7.  West  South  Central  States, 

8.  Mountain  States 

9.  Pacific  States 


1000 

1910 

3.9 

5.5% 

3.3 

4.0 

2.0 

2.0 

3.3 

2.2 

3.3 

3.2 

2.0 

2.0 

26.2 

11.6 

35.6 

18.5 

18.0 

15.4 

5.8% 

4.7 

2.4 

2.4 

4.5 

1.9 

9.4 
11.1 
12.2 


Intensive  small-scale  farming.  On  the  smaller 
farms  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  country,  and  in  the 
vicinity  of  large  cities  generally,  the  intensive  and  di- 
versified farming  of  small  tracts  for  profit  is  becoming 
very  common,  and  it  is  in  these  states  that  farming 


NEW  RURAI^LIFE   CONDITIONS  47 

under  a  scientific  manager  is  on  the  increase.  Due  to 
the  nearness  to  a  constantly  expanding  city  market, 
an  easily  available  supply  of  cheap  labor,  the  short 
haul,  and  the  good  prices  obtained,  a  small  farm  of 
twenty  to  forty  acres  there  has  become  a  good  com- 
mercial business  and  a  well-paying  investment.  Such 
farms  are  being  bought  up  by  investors,  and  in  the 
southern  New  England  States  there  are  many  such 
which  pay  well.  Such  farms,  themselves  well  tilled 
and  put  to  diversified  market  farming,  often  possess 
greenhouse,  fruit,  model  dairy,  piggery,  and  poul- 
try departments,  as  well  as  vegetables  and  some 
grains.  Not  infrequently,  however,  such  farms  are  also 
business  propositions,  run  in  connection  with  a  city 
hotel,  catering  company,  or  group  of  stores,  or  as  an 
investment  by  some  well-to-do  city  owner.  Careful 
accounts  of  all  operations  are  kept.  The  owner,  in  such 
cases,  seldom  lives  on  the  farm,  and  visits  it  only  occa- 
sionally to  inspect  it  or  to  confer  with  the  resident 
manager.  If  run  in  connection  with  a  hotel  or  catering 
company,  waste  from  the  kitchens  is  sold  to  the  pig- 
gery or  poultry  departments  of  the  farm,  while  flowers, 
vegetables,  chickens,  eggs,  milk,  and  pork  are  sold  to 
the  catering  end  of  the  business.  The  farm  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  hotel  or  catering  company  on  the  other 
are  run  in  cooperation,  and  each  helps  to  make  the 
other  pay.  This  kind  of  farming,  while  excellent  as  a 
business  proposition,  has  also  resulted  in  social  changes 
of  great  and  far-reaching  consequences  for  rural  life. 


48 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


Decreasing  rural  population.  The  decrease  in  the 
number  of  resident  farm  laborers  actually  needed,  due 
to  the  use  of  improved  machinery,  or  one-crop  special- 
ization, or  both;  the  increased  capital  required  to  buy 
farm  land  and  to  conduct  farming  operations;  and  the 
buytQg-up  of  farms  as  an  investment,  to  be  managed 


, ,  oconecsB   > 

1        |Per  cent  inserted 

^^  INCREASE 

I  I  Ml  Less  than  6  per  c«ntl 
t  -     15  to  15  percent 
t-.v.:|  15  to  25  per  cent 
\/2!Z^  26  to  so  per  cent 
lilH  SO  per  cent  and  over 


Fia.  18.  DECREASE  OR  INCREASE  IN  POPULATION 
IN  INDIANA 

Showing  change,  in  total  population,  by  counties,  from  1910 
to  1940.  Were  the  rural  population  only  shown,  the  results 
would  be  worse,  as  all  but  eight  of  the  ninety-two  counties  lost 
ia  rural  population  in  the  same  period. 


50 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


in  a  scientific  manner  by  a  farm  superintendent,  em- 
ploying cheap  labor  and  as  needed,  have  all  alike 
tended  to  make  farming  more  and  more  of  an  intensive 
business  and  less  of  a  home-providing  industry,  and, 
accordingly,  to  both  a  decrease  in  the  rural  population 
itself  and  to  a  change  in  its  character.  In  the  South  it 
has  resulted  in  the  substitution  of  a  Negro  for  a  white 
population  in  many  counties,  while  in  the  Northern 
States,  where  the  farms  are  the  most  valuable  and 
where  the  use  of  improved  machinery  is  most  com- 
mon, we  find  this  decrease  in  population  and  change 
in  character  most  pronounced.  The  many  new  in- 
ventions in  agricultural  machinery  during  the  past 
two  decades,  chief  of  which  is  the  farm  tractor,  have 
only  accelerated  the  change.      As  shown  by  the  full- 


FiQ.  15.  CHANGES  IN  THE  POPULATION,  1910-1920.  IN  EIGHT 
IMPORTANT  AGRICULTURAL  STATES 

(Nebraska,  Kansas,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Illinois,.  Indiana,  Ohio,  and  Kentucky.) 
On  this  map  the  counties  in  black  indicate  a  total  loss  in  population  in  the  county 
during  the  ten  years  ;  the  counties  shaded  indicate  a  loss  in  the  rural  population  of 
the  county  though  the  county  as  a  whole  gained  ;  and  counties  left  white  are  counties 
in  which  the  population  increased  during  the  decade. 


NEW  RURAL-LIFE   CONDITIONS  5t 

page  map  on  page  49,  giving  the  increase  or  decrease  in 
the  rural  population  by  states  for  the  decade  from  1910 
to  1920,  six  of  our  richest  and  most  important  agri- 
cultural states  have  actually  lost  in  rural  population, 
while  the  smaller  map  shows  that  many  counties  in  the 
central  agricultural  belt  have  fewer  people  in  the  rural 
districts  than  they  had  ten  years  ago.^  This  loss  in 
population  is  largely  due  to  the  changes  which  we 
have  described  as  characterizing  the  fourth  period  of 
our  agricultural  development.  From  an  agricultural 
point  of  view  the  loss  may  not  be  of  any  serious  signifi- 
cance, and  may  even  be  a  good  thing,  but  the  effect 
of  this  loss  on  such  rural  institutions  as  the  church  and 
the  school  has  been  most  pronounced. 

III.    FARM    TENANTRY 

Recent  increase.  The  leasing  of  farms  to  tenants  is 
nearly  everywhere  on  the  increase,  and  is  everywhere 
attracting  the  attention  of  thoughtful  men.  Over  one 
third  of  the  farms  of  the  United  States  are  to-day 

TENANT  FARMS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

1880 26.6% 

1890 28.4 

1900 35.3 

1910 37.0 

1920 38.1 

^  In  Ohio  the  rural  sections  lost  approximately  40,000  inhabit- 
ants during  the  decade  1910-1920.  Rural  Indiana  lost  10-1,000;  rural 
Missouri  lost  108,000;  rural  Illinois  lost  85,000;  rural  New  York  lost 
127,000;  rural  Iowa  lost  50,000;  rural  Kansas  lost  57,000;  and  rural 
Nebraska  lost  23,000. 


5i 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


cultivated  by  tenants.  In  the  Southern  States  the  per- 
centage is  higher  than  in  the  Northern  States,  and  it  is 
higher  in  the  older  Northern  States  than  in  the  new 
states  of  the  West.  The  recent  increase  va,farm,tenancy 
in  fifteen_of  thejnost  important  agricultural  states 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  table:  — 

PERCENTAGE  OF  TENANT  FARMERS 


States 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1920 

New  York 

16.5 
19.3 
23.7 
31. -1 
23.8 

10.0 
9.1 
9.1 

18.0 
16.3 
27.3 

44.9 
46.8 
87.6 

20.2 
22.9 
25.4 
34.0 
28.1 

14.0 
11.4 
12.9 

24.7 
28.2 
26.8 

53.6 
48.6 
41.9 

23.9 
27.4 
28.7 
39.3 
34.9 

15.9 
13.5 
17.3 

36.9 
35.2 
30.5 

43.8 

59.9 
57.7 
49.7 

20.8 
28.4 
30.0 
41.4 
37.8 

15.8 
13.9 
21.0 

38.1 
36.8 
29.9 
54.8 

65.6 
60.2 
62.6 

19.2 

Ohio 

29  5 

Indiana 

32.0 

Illinois 

42.7 

Iowa 

41.7 

Michigan 

17.7 

Wisconsin 

14.4 

Minnesota 

24.7 

Nebraska 

42.9 

Kansas 

40.4 

Missouri 

28.8 

Oklahoma 

51.0 

Georgia 

66.6 

Alabama 

57.9 

Texas 

53.3 

The  chart  on  the  opposite  page  shows  the  same  thing 
graphically,  for  each  of  the  states,  but  by  acreage 
instead  of  by  the  number  of  farms. 

R^cent^c^^nge^^in^haxg^tgr.  Not  only  is  the  per- 
centage of  tenancy  increasing,  but  a  significant  change 
in  the  character  of  the  tenants  has  also  recently  begun 


■I^H  OWNERS  M'M'A'y'A  MANAGERS-^  f^^^ggl  TENANTS 

Fia.  16.  ACREAGE  OP  ALL  LAND  IN  FARMS  CLASSIFIED  BY 
CHARACTER  OF  TENURE  OF  OPERATOR.  1920 


H  RUKAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

to  manifest  itself  in  certain  states  and  regions.  This 
change  in  the  character  of  the  farm  tenants  is  likely 
to  become  one  of  the  marked  features  of  the  fourth 
period  of  our  agricultural  development,  and  needs  to 
be  described  somewhat  fully. 

The  migrations  of  foreign-born  to  the  United  States 
before  about  1882  were  chiefly  from  the  north  and  west 
of  Europe,  —  English,  Irish,  Germans,  and  Scandina- 
vians. Many  of  these  settled  in  the  states  of  the  then 
Northwest,  and  contributed  much  to  their  develop- 
ment and  strength.  About  1882  the  character  of  our 
immigration  began  to  change  in  a  very  remarkable 
manner,  and,  after  about  1890,  this  change  became 
very  marked.  The  Germans  practically  stopped,  the 
Irish  and  Scandinavians  decreased,  and  the  English 
and  Scotch  turned  to  Canada.  In  their  place  came  a 
rapidly  increasing  number  of  people  from  the  south 
and  east  of  Europe,  —  southern  Italians,  Sicilians, 
Huns,  Poles,  Russians,  Slovenians,  Bulgarians,  Ser- 
vians, Croatians,  Dalmatians,  and  Roumanians. 
Japanese,  also,  came  for  a  time  in  numbers  to  the 
states  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  After  about  1900,  edu- 
cated Finns  from  the  north  and  poor  Russian  Jews 
from  the  east  of  Europe,  alike  driven  out  by  Russian 
persecutions;  and  Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Armenians 
from  the  south  and  east,  have  come  to  us  in  rapidly 
increasing  numbers. 

The  eflFect  of  this  change,  during  the  past  two  dec- 
aden,  is  shown  by  the  following  table:  — 


NEW  RURAL-LIFE   CONDITIONS 


55 


TABLE,  SHOWING  THE  CHANGES  IN  TWENTY  YEARS 
IN  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 


Per  cent  of  the  total 

COUNTBT  OF  BiBTa 

1900 

1910 

1920 

Northwestern  Europe 

67.8 

9.0 

2.3 

15.6 

27.2 

10.4 

1.2 

1.0 

1.1 

17.7 

0.4 

4.7 

0.1 

6.2 

6.2 

0.1 

0.1 

11.4 

1.0 

1.0 

49.9 

7.1 

1.9 

10.0 

18.5 

9.3 

1.3 

0.9 

0.9 

37.4 

0.6 

9.9 

0.7 

12.8 

12.4 

0.7 

0.6 

9.0 

1.6 

0.9 

44.9 

England  and  Wales 

6.4 

Scotland 

1.9 

Ireland 

7.6 

Germany 

17.6 

Scandinavian  States 

8.9 

Netherlands 

1.6 

France 

l.« 

Switzerland 

0.9 

Southern  and  Eastern  Euroj)e 

42.6 

Spain  and  Portugal 

0.9 

Italy 

11.7 

Greece 

1.3 

Russia  and  Finland 

16.3 

Austria-Hungary 

10.0 

Balkan  States 

1.4 

Turkey 

1.0 

8.1 

Mexico 

3.5 

0.3 

The  southern  and  eastern  Europeans  are  of  a  very 
different  type  from  the  Germans,  English,  Scotch,  and 
Scandinavians  who  preceded  them.  These  earlier 
peoples  were  from  lancis  wher§  general  educatjo^^^and  a 
relatively  high  degree  of  civilization  pj;eyailed.  They 
were  intelligent,  thrifty,  and  law-abiding.  The^  later 
migrations  d^  not  manifest  these  charactetigtics  ^ 
strongly.  They  are  thrifty  but  ignorant,  and  usually 
wretchedly  poor;   they  come   from   countries  where 


66  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

populareducation^^  popular  government  have  as 
yet  made  butjittle  headway;  they  are  often  lack- 
ing in  initiative  and  self-reliance;  and  they  lack  the 
Anglo-Teutonic  conceptions  of  law  and  order,  and  the 
Agglo^^axon  conception  of  government  by  popular 
jwjJL  The  poorest  and  least  foresighted  of  them  have 
settled  in  our  cities  and  in  the  mining  and  manufactur- 
ing districts,  and  form  the  cheap  labor  of  the  land. 
The  more  intelligent  and  progressive  have  pushed  on 
to  the  westward,  and  have  turned  to  agricultural 
employment.  This  has  been  particularly  the  case  with 
the  Italians,  the  Slavs,  and  those  from  Turkish  terri- 
tory. The  Japanese  and  the  Chinese  in  the  West  have 
also  largely  turned  to  agriculture.  The  map  of  the 
United  States  on  the  opposite  page  shows  the  distri- 
bution of  the  foreign-born.  The  heavy  percentage  of 
foreign-born  in  the  strictly  agricultural  and  rural  states 
of  the  West,  as  well  as  in  the  manufacturing  states  of 
the  East,  is  worthy  of  note. 

New  tenants.  It  is  these  more  recent  arrivals  — 
south  Italians,  Austro-Huns,  Poles,  Slavs,  Bulgars, 
Armenians,  and  Japanese  —  who  are  now  beginning  to 
take  the  place  as  farm  tenants,  in  the  Northern  States, 
of  the  well-to-do  farmer  previously  described.  In  all 
of  the  Northern  States  we  find  them,  though  not  in 
all  counties  or  regions.  The  movement  of  these 
peoples  to  the  farms  is  probably  as  yet  only  in  its 
beginnings.  These  same  people  are  also  pushing  on  to 
the  new  lands  of  the  West,  where  they  are  helping  to 


58  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

open  up  farms,  often  on  a  large  scale. ^  The  Italians 
are  rapidly  pushing  into  the  agricultural  states  of  the 
South,  where  they  are  beginning  to  displace  the  less 
energetic  Negro  farmer.  Many  of  these  new  people 
have  been  peasant  farmers  in  Europe,  they  know  how 
to  handle  farm  work,  they  are  used  to  a  much  lower 
standard  of  living  than  the  American  farmer  or  farm 
band  will  endure,  and  frequently  live  in  wretched 
poverty  that  they  may  rear  their  families  and  save 
enough  to  buy,  eventually,  a  farm  of  their  own. 

At  first  these  people  are  employed  as  farm  laborers, 
little  shacks  on  the  corners  of  the  farm  being  con- 
structed for  them  to  live  in.  The  next  ste^^isthfe  tenant 
stage,  the  owner  leasing  the  farm  to  them  to  manage. 
Sometimes  the  owner  remains  in  the  farmhouse  and 
enjoys  the  leisure;  very  often,  though,  he  closes  the 
farm  home  and  moves  to  town  with  his  family.  There 
he  lives  on  his  income  and  enjoys  the  pleasures  of  city 
life.  The  new  tenants  are  at  first  too  poor  to  furnish 
machinery  or  much  equipment,  so  they  lease  a  fur- 
nished farm  at  a  share  or  a  fixed-cash  rental.  Share 
tenantry  soon  changes  to  cash  tenantry,  for  the  reason 
that  the  owner,  who  has  moved  to  town,  is  unable  to 

1  In  California,  for  example,  29.9  per  cent  of  the  farmers  in  1920 
were  foreign-born  whites,  and  2.6  per  cent  were  foreign-born  non- 
whites.  Of  the  foreign-born  wliites,  all  of  the  above-mentioned 
nationalities  are  found,  Italians,  Portuguese,  Swiss,  Germans,  and 
Japanese  being  most  numerous,  with  many  Serbs,  Bulgars,  Arme- 
nians and  South  Russians  present.  The  climate  and  agriculture  of 
the  South  and  of  California  are  so  suited  to  Mediterranean  peoples 
that  we  may  expect  to  see  them  come  iu  increasing  numbers. 


(  C<iu>-tiS!/,  Rural  Manliood.  ) 

One  of  four  trolleys  in  a  Massachusetts  train. 


(  Courtesy,  Sunset  Magazine.) 

The  lecture  car  in  a  California  demonstration  train. 
UNIVERSITY   EXTENSION   IN   AGRICULTURE 


%  .. 

^^»©^ 

■J        " 

1 

■  ^^ 

Hill 

J    5 

fcs 

■1  " 

M 

fj],  fl 

HI 

f 

■ 

^«iBP%.    Jpnl 

E?^B 

r 

iwr 

^Bfi 

IS 

m 

P 

^^^^MHii 

MK^ 

SkI 

^Bi 

When  the  colonists  first  came. 


The  iii'st  house. 


One  of  the  later  dwellings. 
NEW   FARM   WORKERS   AND   OWNERS 

An  Italian  agricultural  settlement  in  Arkansas.  The  picture  below  was 
taken  fourteen  years  after  the  two  above.  This  shows  well  the  way  in  which 
South  Europeans  slowly  evolve  into  American  farmers  of  the  home-builder 
type.     For  all  such,  rural  education  of  a  very  practical  kind  is  needed. 


NEW   RURAI^LIFE   CONDITIONS  69 

oversee  the  work  of  a  share  tenant.  As  the  farmer  and 
his  family  find  their  wants  expanding  and  the  cost  of 
living  moving  upward,  the  tendency  is  to  re-lease  the 
farm  only  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  to  make  as  few 
improvements  as  possible.  During  the  growing  season 
the  tenant  has  little  or  nothing,  and  the  increasing 
cash  rental  frequently  leaves  him  with  little  surplus 
after  the  crops  are  sold  and  the  debts  have  been  paid. 
If  the  lease  is  not  renewed  on  what  the  tenant  considers 
good  terms,  he  takes  his  tools  and  such  family  as  he 
may  have,  and  moves  on.  This  condition  creates  a 
transient  tenantry,  who  have  but  a_passingLjnterest 
in  the  local  institutions  of  mral  society,  and  the  social 
and  educational  consequences  of  this  change,  as  will 
be  pointed  out  in  the  following  chapters,  are  very 
great. 

The  Southern  Negro  tenant.  In  the  Southern  States 
the  introduction  of  Negro  tenantry  has  followed 
largely  as  a  result  of  unintelligent  farming,  which  has 
in  turn  resulted  in  soil  exhaustion.  Due  to  decreas- 
ing crops  the  former  owners  have  lost  their  lands  to 
money-lenders,  and  tenantry  farming  has  resulted. 
Cotton  becomes  the  one  crop,  and  the  economic  and 
social  results  are  pathetic.  The  crop  is  mortgaged  to 
obtain  seed  and  means  to  live  on  during  the  growing 
period,  the  yield  and  profits  are  small,  the  tenants 
move  from  farm  to  farm  in  the  hope  of  better  luck,  and 
society  becomes  stratified  into  landlord,  tenant,  and 
money-lending  merchant.  In  the  exclusive  wheat  and 


60  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

corn  regions  of  the  Northern  States,  and  in  the  hay 
regions  of  the  Northeastern  States,  we  find  similar  con- 
ditions beginning  to  manifest  themselves. 

The  intermittent  farm  laborer.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  intensive  agriculture  near  the  large  labor 
markets,  or  with  farm  specialization  as  a  business 
undertaking  elsewhere,  the  Negroes  in  the  South  and 
these  new  peoples  in  the  North  and  Far  West  form  the 
cheap  farm  labor  which  is  "taken  on"  and  "  let  off," 
as  needed.  If  the  farm  is  a  business  investment  of 
some  non-resident  owner,  he  not  infrequently  employs 
a  manager  with  an  agricultural  education  and  an  auto- 
mobile, who  manages  the  farm  on  a  salary,  and  by  the 
intermittent  employment  of  such  cheap  labor  as  may 
be  necessary.  Not  infrequently  the  owner  is  himself 
the  manager,  and  conducts  his  farm  on  some  such  plan. 

The  fourth-period  changes.  Omitting  remote  and 
sparsely  settled  regions,  and  omitting  the  small,  par- 
tially self-sufficing,  and  somewhat  independent  farmer 
who  lives  in  the  country  largely  from  choice,  the  third 
or  commercial  and  home-building  stage  has  now 
everywhere  been  reached  in  the  development  of  our 
American  agriculture.  Somewhere,  in  practically 
every  agricultural  state,  these  third-period  conditions 
are  in  turn  giving  way  to  the  fourth-period  conditions, 
though  the  latter  naturally  have  not,  as  yet,  been 
fully  evolved  in  all  sections.  The  commercialization  of 
agriculture  has  come  in  all  except  the  remote  regions, 
or  regions  inhabited  by  poor,  unintelligent,  and  im- 


NEW  RURAL-LIFE  CONDITIONS  61 

provident  people.  In  such  regions  and  among  such 
people  the  self-sufficing  stage  may,  as  yet  in  part, 
prevail.  The  urbanization  of  rural  life  has  also  come, 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  to  all  except  the  remote  or 
sparsely  settled  regions.  In  some  states  and  in  many 
counties,  the  tenantry  problem,  and  especially  foreign 
tenantry,  has  not  as  yet  arrived;  in  others  the  begin- 
nings only  are  to  be  found,  and  may  be  scarcely  recog- 
nized as  yet;  in  others  the  change  is  in  full  swing,  and 
the  original  farmers  of  entire  neighborhoods  have  been 
replaced  by  the  new  tenant  class.  The  agriculturai 
consequences  of  these  changes  may  not  be  very  signi- 
ficant; the  educational  and  social  consequences,  how- 
ever, are  very  important  and  far-reaching. 

With  the  increasing  values  for  good  farm  lands,  and 
the  increasing  use  of  expensive  farm  machinery,  each 
decade  it  becomes  harder  for  a  man  without  capital  to 
engage  in  farming  as  an  owner.  Values,  wages,  and  the 
conditions  of  farming  now  favor  the  property-owning 
class  of  farmers,  and  the  farm-laboring  class  tends  to 
become  more  and  more  like  the  factory  laborer  in  the 
city.  This  brings  the  old  question  of  the  relations  of 
capital  and  labor  into  rural  life,  to  be  worked  out  in 
agriculture  as  well  as  in  the  manufacturing  industries. 

Having  now  described,  at  some  length,  the  historical 
development  of  American  agriculture,  and  the  vast 
changes  in  rural  life  which  have  come  as  a  consequence 
of  this  development,  we  shall,  in  succeeding  chapters, 
point  out  the  great  and  far-reaching  social  conse- 


62  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

quences  of  these  changed  conditions,  and  then  show 
the  relation  of  these  changes  to  the  problems  surround- 
ing the  improvement  of  the  rural  school. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  old  isolation  practically  ending? 
8.  Estimate  the  time-  and  labor-saving  effect  of  the  introduction 
of  the  new  rural  conveniences,  described  on  pp.  32-33. 

3.  How  rapidly  are  the  homes  in  your  neighborhood  being  trans- 
formed in  the  manner  described  on  pp.  33-34? 

4.  Explain  the  change,  in  the  cityward  movement,  from  an  indi- 
vidual movement  in  the  second  and  third  periods  to  a  family 
movement  in  the  fourth  period. 

6.  How  far  has  the  commercialization  of  agriculture  progressed  in 
your  community  or  county? 

6.  Where  do  your  farmers  find  their  markets? 

7.  About  how  much  capital  would  be  required  to  buy  a  good  farm 
in  your  neighborhood?  how  much  capital  would  it  take  to  run  it 
a  year;  and  about  what  would  be  the  value  of  its  output? 

8.  Is  the  rural  population  in  your  county  increasing  or  decreasing? 
If  so,  why? 

9.  Is  it  changing  in  character?  If  so,  how? 

10.  Have  southern  Europeans  begun  to  come  into  the  county,  as 
farmers?  If  so,  what  races?  How  do  they  live  and  farm? 

11.  How  far  have  the  fourth-period  changes  evolved  in  your 
county? 

12.  Have  you  different  communities  in  the  county  which  typify 
second-,  third-,  and  fourth-period  conditions?  Have  you  also 
intermediate  types? 

13.  Have  specialization,  standardization,  and  coBperative  market- 
ing become  common  in  your  county  as  yet?   In  what  lines? 


CHAPTER  III 

EFFECTS  OF  THESE  CHANGES  ON  RURAL  SOCIETY 
AND  RURAL  INSTITUTIONS 

Up  to  very  recently  rural  social  life  and  institutions 
have  always  possessed  certain  marked  and  very  defi- 
nite characteristics,  but  where  the  changes  which  have 
characterized  the  fourth  period  in  the  development 
of  American  agriculture,  as  described  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter,  have  taken  place,  they  have  materially 
changed  the  nature  of  rural  society  and  have  under- 
mined the  old  rural  social  institutions.  The  effects  of 
these  changes  have  been  most  marked  with  reference 
to  (l)  rural  social  life,  (2)  local  government,  (3)  the 
rural  church,  and  (4)  the  rural  school.  These  we  shall 
next  consider,  in  order. 

I.    RURAL   SOCLAL   LIFE 

Early  social  life.  During  the  early  pioneer  period 
this  was  very  limited.  Isolation  and  loneliness  were 
the  rule,  except  where  a  little  settlement  existed.  With 
the  coming  of  more  people  and  the  development  of 
roads  and  villages,  local  intercourse  became  easier  and 
more  common,  and  this  soon  developed  into  what  may 
be  termed  rural  society.  There  were  barn-raisings, 
husking-  and  quilting-bees,  sugaring-offs,  spelling- 
matches,  singing-schools,  literary  societies,  weddings. 


64  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

funerals,  dances,  parties,  and  church  "  socials,"  as 
well  as  prayer-meetings,  and  Sunday  school  and  Sun- 
day church,  to  which  farmers  and  their  families  came 
from  miles  around.  Generally  speaking,  all  were 
admitted  to  these  local  social  gatherings.  The  people 
knew  one  another,  formed  a  homogeneous  group,  and 
often  maintained  close  social  relationships.  Their 
children  attended  the  same  district  school,  grew  up 
together,  and  intermarried.  It  was  not  uncommon,  a 
score  of  years  ago,  to  find  most  of  the  people  of  an  old 
established  community  related  to  one  another.  This  is 
still  the  case  in  those  older  communities  which  have 
not  as  yet  experienced  many  of  the  fourth-period 
changes,  but  it  is  much  less  common  than  it  used  to  be. 
New  and  larger  interests.  With  the  urbanization  of 
rural  life,  as  described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  there 
has  been  a  marked  breaking-up  of  this  close  social 
relationship  in  the  rural  communities.  The  barn- 
raisings,  husking-  and  quilting-bees,  spelling-matches, 
and  singing  and  literary  societies  have  all  disappeared, 
and  the  church  social  has  declined  in  importance.  The 
urbanization  process  has  also  greatly  changed  the 
farmer  himself.  He  is  no  longer  so  peculiar  in  his  dress, 
his  manners,  or  his  speech,  and  the  newspapers  have 
largely  ceased  to  make  fun  of  him  or  to  caricature  him. 
The  daily  metropolitan  newspaper,  the  illustrated 
monthly  magazine,  public  education,  the  steam  train, 
the  interurban  trolley,  and  the  automobile,  as  well  as 
the  many  inventions  and  discoveries  of  science,  have 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS       65 

opened  up  a  new  world  to  the  farmer,  his  wife,  and  his 
children.  New  and  larger  interests  now  occupy  their 
minds;  local  social  relationships  interest  them  less; 
larger  and  more  distant  matters  interest  them  more. 
Their  range  of  acquaintances  has  increased;  they  can- 
not know  the  many  so  well  as  they  once  knew  the  few. 
The  farmer  comes  to  feel  himself  a  part  of  a  larger 
society,  —  a  county,  a  state,  or  the  nation,  rather  than 
of  a  district  or  a  township,  —  and  he  takes  an  interest 
in  the  aflPairs  of  the  larger  unit.  Farm  specialization, 
scientific  management,  and  improved  machinery  have 
given  him  more  time  to  read  and  to  think,  and  more 
time  for  personal  enjoyment,  and  he  travels  farther 
and  more.  The  result  has  been  a  great  widening  of 
personal  relationships  and  a  marked  weakening  of  the 
old  local  personal  ties. 

City  connections.  The  literary  and  social  clubs  and 
the  fraternal  orders  of  the  towns  now  count  many 
farmers  and  their  wives  as  members.  City  connections 

—  financial,  professional,  social,  political,  and  religious 

—  are  established.  The  children  attend  the  high  school 
in  the  neighboring  town  or  city,  copy  town  ways  and 
dress,  and  form  new  friendships  there.  The  young 
farmer,  with  his  automobile,  begins  to  call  on  the  city 
girls,  and  the  farmer's  daughters  establish  city  social 
connections.  The  social  horizon  is  soon  greatly  en- 
larged. The  increasing  wealth  of  the  farmer  and  the 
better  education  of  his  children  have  made  both  his  son 
and  his  daughter  acceptable  socially  where  they  would 


66  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

not  have  been  received  a  generation  ago.  Marriages 
are  accordingly  made  at  a  much  greater  distance  than 
formerly,  and  with  new  social  classes. 

Enjo3rment  of  life.  As  prosperity  comes  to  the 
farmer,  he  begins  to  enjoy  life  more.  He  goes  on  a 
cheap  excursion  somewhere,  and  soon  establishes  the 
vacation  habit.  We  next  find  him  spending  the  winter 
with  his  son  or  daughter  "  in  town  "  or  in  some  distant 
city,  leaving  the  farm  in  the  care  of  a  hired  man.  Soon 
a  trip  to  Florida,  Texas,  or  California  during  the  "off 
season  "  is  not  considered  too  far.  From  the  middle  of 
December  to  the  middle  of  March,  many  of  the  board- 
ing-houses and  cheaper-rate  hotels  of  Los  Angeles  and 
vicinity  are  crowded  with  farmers  and  their  wives  from 
the  Middle  West,  who  have  gone  to  California  to 
spend  the  winter  season.  They  crowd  the  sight-seeing 
trolleys,  visit  the  orchards  and  the  beaches,  and  travel 
by  auto  stage  to  see  and  comment  on  the  farms  and 
ranches  they  pass.  The  great  increase  in  land  and 
produce  values,  together  with  the  increase  in  acreage 
production  due  to  scientific  methods  and  management, 
make  the  farmer  feel  that  he  can  afford  these  pleasures. 
Not  infrequently  he  goes  home,  sells  out,  and  moves  to 
some  new  place  he  has  seen  in  his  travels.  In  any  case 
he  returns  from  his  trips  a  broader-minded  man,  with 
new  thoughts  and  new  interests,  and  more  a  citizen  of 
the  world  than  of  a  county. 

Tenantry  and  social  life.  In  communities  where 
there  has  been  an  introduction  of  foreign  farm  ten- 


RURAL  SOCIETY   AND  INSTITUTIONS      67 

antry  the  old  rural  social  life  still  more  rapidly  disin- 
tegrates. The  old  families  retain  their  friendships  and 
maintain  social  relationships  with  one  another,  but 
there  are  few  social  relations  established  with  the  new 
tenants.  The  old  families  frequently  resent  their 
intrusion  into  the  neighborhood.    "  Calls  "  are  limited 


Fia.  18.  CLASSES  OF  FAEMERS  IN  THE  COTTON  BELT  OF  THE 
SOUTH 


almost  entirely  to  cases  of  sickness  or  death,  and  both 
parties  to  the  employing  or  leasing  contract  under- 
stand that  it  is  to  be  a  business  and  not  a  social  rela- 
tionship they  are  entering  into.  Such  conditions  are 
natural  and  understandable,  but  they  tend  only  to 
increase  the  social  stratification  in  the  rural  districts. 
Those  who  still  remain  on  the  neighboring  farms 
lose  their  old  loyalty  to  the  rural  neighborhood  and  to 
rural  institutions,  and  one  by  one  follow  their  neigh- 
bors to  town,  or  practically  withdraw  from  the  neigh- 
borhood social  life.  In  the  Southern  States,  as  the 
blacks  come  in  the  whites  move  out,  and  the  complex- 


68  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

ion  of  the  country  changes  rapidly  to  black.  By  the 
migration  of  whole  families  the  country  is  drained  alike 
of  the  energy  of  youth  and  the  experience  of  age,  and 
the  rural  districts,  in  consequence,  experience  a  social, 
political,  and  religious  degeneration.  One  of  the  most 
important  social  questions  now  facing  those  inter- 
ested in  rural  welfare  is  how  to  prevent  this  change  and 
preserve  the  old  life  standards. 

II.    LOCAL   GOVERNMENT 

Loss  of  interest.  The  effect  of  these  fourth-period 
changes  on  local  government  is  also  marked.  With  the 
development  of  new  and  larger  interests  in  things  be- 
yond the  rural  community,  the  rural  resident  gradually 
loses  interest  in  the  things  at  home.  As  he  becomes  a 
citizen  of  the  world  rather  than  of  a  school  district  or 
township,  the  world's  work  interests  him  much  more, 
and  the  government  and  the  petty  questions  of  the 
school  district  and  the  township  interest  him  much 
less.  Questions  and  elections  which  once  seemed  all- 
important  to  him  now  too  often  seem  of  such  small 
significance  that  he  is  unwilling  to  take  the  time  to  go 
to  the  meeting  or  to  the  polls.  The  larger  and  more 
important  his  farm  business,  the  more  he  reads  and 
travels,  and  the  broader  his  interests  become,  the  less 
he  is  likely  to  take  any  real  interest  in  the  small  affairs 
of  local  government.  The  effects  of  this  change  in  rural 
outlook  are  seen  in  the  decline  in  importance  of  and 
attendance  at,  and  often  the  entire  abolition  of  the 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS       69 

annual  school-district  meeting;  the  decHne  in  attend- 
ance at  and  interest  in  the  annual  town  and  township 
meetings;  the  difficulty  in  securing  good  men  to  serve 
as  local  school  or  township  officials;  and  the  small 
percentage  of  voters  who  take  the  trouble  to  vote  at 
these  local  elections,  unless  there  is  some  local  fight 
involved. 

The  new  tenants  and  government.  As  foreign  farm 
tenantry  is  introduced,  the  effect  on  local  self-govern- 
ment becomes  even  more  marked.  The  movement  of 
the  older  home-builder  type  of  families  to  town,  leav- 
ing the  farms  in  the  hands  of  the  newer  class  of  tenants, 
results  in  a  great  dearth  of  personality  in  many  rural 
districts.  In  marked  contrast  with  the  farmer  he  dis- 
places, —  strong,  opinionated,  virile,  deeply  conscious 
of  his  personal  worth,  and  deeply  interested  in  political 
affairs,  —  the  newcomer  is  too  often  docile,  subser- 
vient, and  without  decided  opinions  on  any  question. 
If  the  new  tenant  is  of  south  European  stock,  he  is 
almost  devoid  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  conceptions  of  the 
importance  of  local  self-government,  and  he  is  natu- 
rally but  little  interested  in  our  forms  of  government 
or  our  political  life.  The  lack  of  ownership  of  any 
property,  and  often  the  expectation  of  but  a  transient 
residence,  naturally  contribute  to  the  lack  of  interest. 
These  conditions  are  far  from  universal,  yet  in  many 
rural  communities  the  change  has  progressed  so  far 
that  there  is  now  no  longer  enough  of  the  older  resi- 
dential class  remaining  to  carry  on  the  work  of  local 


70  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


DZISIV 

Polsko-Amerykanskich 
Farmerow 

w  Kolegfum  Agronomicznem  Stana  Mass. 

■w 

Amherst,  Mass.  w  Piatek  dnia  31  Marca  1911 

Program  w  Kaplicy  KoleKimn. 
Wstep  wolay.  Przekaski  25  ct. 

'•^g-HTiirr  '"  i  nni  ^^-j--  "  "'jt  rr  irrnrp  mainii  fihiili  "     pnct  pniaon  C  E.  Stan* 
Oiaf»>-tUm»foiC^baU'  ....  pnlaor  W.  F  Bnob 

OfAiay*  .....         PL  Frmrmii  Oritiu>;  i  Sandotanl 

''Pceabt  tmt  Bc  ithijai  obyw^kltai  taaykuu^wi,'  p.  ]w  Rouizkiewiei  t  Botfom 

o  12  godoae  w  polurfniw  pnekxika  w  atli  nJiiina^ji'TiMJ 

Odgodzillj  l2J0<)a  I  JO  tmediuie  <o<U  i  faupectow 
Ojodtimt  IJO.  Odciyl:  "JalupwukiipowKdU  bow"  Dt.  J.  B.  LjnilMy 

0(icz|fti*'Wjaki  tpotobiubjrcBly  i  bye  uwaae  ■noym  **  p.  F.  NdGgas.  prof oor  Fuyld  B  Amktftf 
tOdccyt ;  C^  policy  faimerty  ebca  axeby  Kolegium  pomayiin  im  w  nrTfnni  ae 

•^KlU«>i<3)rbi  wiuuaidi<lz>cd>~  .  .  p.  C  H.  Whils 

OtkjTti'CoPoWnbXdU  Amorfa"  .  .  Di.  C  W.  Tiippa  t  B<Mlca 

Tlaua  p.  K.  J.  Woliki  I  HolyoU 

POLISH-AMERICAN  FARMERS  DAY 

AT  THe'MASSACHUSETTS  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE 
IMARCH.  31«  1911 

'  Pncfici)  Talks  on  adecdiui  onion  seed  and  feitilizins  onionst 
WW  feeds  to  buy  for  d&iry  animals.    Good  Citizenship.    Phjnica]  Edu« 
cation  and  Polish-American  history. 

THE  POLISH   FAEMEES'   DAT  POSTER 


Fio.  19.    THE  POLISH  FARMERS'-DAT  POSTER 

self-government,  and  these  newer  tenants  are,  in  such 
communities,  being  elected  to  fill  offices  in  local  gov- 
ernment for  which  at  best  they  are  but  poorly  pre- 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS       71 

pared.  Jose  Cardoza,  Francesco  Bertolini,  and  Petar 
Petarovich  are  elected  as  school  directors;  Nels 
Peterson  as  township  clerk;  and  Alexis  Lodowsky  as 
township  trustee.  The  process  is  of  course  educative  to 
these  newcomers,  though  a  little  hard  on  local  govern- 
ment. The  wonder  is  that  they  do  as  well  as  they  do. 

III.   THE    CHURCH 

The  rural  church.  The  rural  church,  perhaps  more 
than  any  other  rural  institution,  has  felt  the  effects  of 
these  recent  social  changes.  Everywhere  we  read  of 
the  decline  in  influence  and  of  the  dying-out  of  the 
rural  church,  and  everywhere  thoughtful  men  look 
almost  hopelessly  at  the  problem,  wondering  what  the 
future  will  be.  The  church,  so  long  secure  in  its  posi- 
tion as  the  very  center  of  the  community  life,  is  now 
awakening.  Rip  Van  Winkle  like,  to  a  realization  that 
its  whole  world  has  changed  and  that  the  old  condi- 
tions, under  which  it  once  held  almost  undisputed 
sway,  are  now  gone,  perhaps  forever. 

The  New  England  influence.  The  early  settlers  in 
all  of  the  New  England  and  Middle  Colonies  were 
deeply  religious  by  nature.  Most  of  them  had  come  to 
this  country  because  of  religious  motives;  religion  and 
learning  were  to  them  very  vital  matters,  and  a  deep 
religious  interest  has  always  been  one  of  their  marked 
characteristics.  While  religion  was  not  so  vital  a  mat- 
ter with  the  settlers  in  the  Southern  Colonies,  it  never- 
theless played  an  important  part.  Practically  all  of  the 


72  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

early  settlers,  too,  were  adherents  of  some  one  of  the 
branches  of  the  Protestant  faith. 

As  these  people  pushed  westward  after  the  close  of 
the  Revolutionary  War,  they  carried  their  native  insti- 
tutions with  them,  and  the  Northern  people,  in  partic- 
ular, gave  a  religious  impress  to  all  of  the  new  states 
in  which  they  settled.  The  settlement  of  northern 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa,  as  well  as  of  south- 
em  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  was  but  a  repetition  of 
the  earlier  New  England  migrations  into  New  York. 
Trains  of  wagons  carrying  families  from  some  town  in 
the  East,  and  taking  their  minister  with  them,  poured 
into  the  then  wilderness  or  on  out  onto  the  prairies.  New 
settlements  in  the  West  were  the  children  of  old  settle- 
ments, often  of  the  same  name,  in  the  East.  Every- 
where they  created  anew  their  New  England  institu- 
tions, chief  among  which  were  the  town  meeting,  the 
church,  and  the  school.  In  the  course  of  time,  meeting- 
houses were  built  all  over  the  territory  settled  by  these 
people.  Sometimes  their  churches  were  built  in  the  lit- 
tle villages  which  formed  the  trading  center  for  a  rural 
neighborhood,  and  sometimes  they  were  located  at  the 
crossing  of  roads  in  the  country.  Methodist,  Christian, 
Presbyterian,  Baptist,  and  Congregational  were  among 
the  chief  denominations  established.  These  churches 
became  prominent  rural  institutions,  and  once  exer- 
cised a  very  important  social  and  religious  influence. 

Large  influence  of  the  early  church.  During  this 
period  of  our  early  development  the  church  was  a 


RURAL  SOCIETY   AND  INSTITUTIONS       73 

much  more  powerful  factor  in  the  lives  of  both  old  and 
young  than  it  is  to-day.  The  minister  was  everywhere 
respected  and  looked  up  to.  The  young  were  trained  to 
go  to  church  and  to  Sunday  school,  and  Sunday  was 
observed  generally  as  a  day  of  rest  and  religious  service. 
A  religious  sanction  for  acts  of  conduct  was  frequently 


Fra.  20.    TYPICAL  ONE-ROOM   RURAL  CHURCHEB 

set  forth,  and  wrong  actions  by  members  of  the  com- 
munity were  severely  frowned  upon  by  the  older  mem- 
bers. The  communities  were  small  and  homogeneous, 
and  every  one's  actions  were  made  a  matter  for  com- 
munity discussion  and  reproof,  and  to  a  degree  almost 
unknown  to-day.  The  home,  too,  was  more  strict,  and 
exercised  a  greater  directing  and  restraining  influence 
over  the  children  than  is  the  case  to-day.  Courtesy, 
respect,  proper  demeanor,  obedience,  and  honesty  were 
inculcated.  All  of  this  was  highly  educative,  and 
served  to  regulate  the  actions  of  both  old  and  young. 
Early  religious  intensity.  Under  such  conditions 
there  was,  naturally,  no  rural-church  problem  of  any 


74  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

consequence.  Church  membership  was  the  rule,  and 
both  men  and  women  not  only  had  pronounced  con- 
victions as  to  the  importance  of  rehgion,  but  also  as  to 
the  relative  worth  of  the  churches  of  the  village  or  of 
the  rural  community  to  which  they  belonged.  Each 
was  a  defender  of  his  or  her  church;  there  was  much 
said  about  the  only  sure  way  to  salvation;  and  minis- 
ters not  infrequently  proved,  to  the  satisfaction  of 
themselves  as  well  as  of  most  of  their  congregation, 
that  the  members  of  other  sects  were  lost  souls.  The 
natural  combative  nature  of  men  drew  them  into  the 
contest,  while  the  struggle  for  leadership  among  the 
different  denominations  awakened  much  interest  and 
gave  the  members  engaged  in  it  much  personal  satis- 
faction. The  strong  individualism  and  emotionalism 
of  the  time,  the  limited  interests,  and  the  common 
conception  of  the  church  as  the  dispenser  of  individual 
salvation,  made  it  appeal  strongly  to  the  majority  of 
rural  and  village  people  during  the  earlier  periods  of 
our  agricultural  development.  The  few  to  whom  the 
sectarian  strife  and  the  strong  emotionalism  of  the 
time  did  not  appeal  of  course  belonged  to  the  "non- 
elect"  or  the  "totally  depraved,"  and  were  dismissed 
with  but  little  concern.  The  failure  was  of  course  with 
them;  it  could  not  be  with  the  church. 

The  intellectual  revolution.  Since  those  simple 
earlier  days  the  whole  spirit  of  our  life  has  changed, 
and  the  changes  have  come  so  rapidly  and  have  been 
of  such  a  fundamental  nature  that  they  have  shaken 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS      75 

the  church  to  its  very  foundations.  Power-machinery 
has  changed  industry  from  an  individual  to  a  social 
undertaking;  steam  and  electricity  have  revolutionized 
thinking,  as  well  as  industrial  life;  the  restless  question- 
ing spirit  of  science  has  entered  into  all  phases  of 
intellectual  life,  and  the  old  theological  security  of  the 
church  has  been  swept  aside;  and  the  change  from 
guesswork  and  luck  farming  to  scientific  farming  has 
had  its  counterpart  in  the  change  from  emotional 
enthusiasm  to  intellectual  calculation.  The  new  sci- 
ence of  psychology,  too,  has  come  in  to  destroy  the  old 
conception  of  the  soul,  to  show  the  interdependence  of 
body,  mind,  and  spirit,  and  to  point  out  that  to  save  a 
man's  soul  you  must  first  save  the  man;  while  the  new 
education  has  emphasized  guidance  and  helpfulness 
rather  than  repression  in  dealing  with  the  young.  The 
old  talk  of  the  "only  church"  has  vanished,  carrying 
with  it  the  old  theological  debates.  The  old  zeal  to 
get  converts  to  build  up  "our  church"  is  also  almost 
gone,  as  it  is  realized  now  that  one  may  lead  a  helpful 
religious  life  in  connection  with  any  church.  Still  more, 
it  is  now  fully  realized  that  church  membership  and 
a  religious  life  are  no  longer  necessarily  synonymous 
terms.  Personal  character  and  the  general  level  of  our 
moral  life  are  high  to-day  among  the  typical  American 
farming  class,  but  the  moral  strength  is  no  longer 
coupled  with  a  theological  interest,  and  church  rela- 
tionship is  no  longer  considered  as  a  necessary  pre- 
requisite to  it.   Religion  is  now  felt  by  many  to  be 


76  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

less  vital  than  formerly,  while  economic  life  and  suc- 
cess on  earth  are  now  worth  more  to  them.  The 
urbanization  of  rural  life  has  created  new  interests, 
particularly  for  the  young  people,  and  the  great 
expansion  of  world  interests  has  given  the  farmer  new 
points  of  view. 

Social  nature  of  the  old  Sunday  meeting.  The  old- 
time  Sunday  meeting  was  an  important  social  as  well 
as  a  religious  affair.  After  the  service  a  form  of  social 
reception  was  commonly  held,  the  sermon  was  dis- 
cussed, and  social  amenities  exchanged.  The  old 
families  had  their  regular  seats,  and  there  was  a  family 
loyalty  to  the  church,  as  an  important  neighborhood 
institution.  There  was  a  pride  in  the  church  edifice, 
too,  on  the  part  of  the  people,  analogous  to  that  which 
the  farmer  of  the  home-building  type  took  in  his  home, 
his  barn,  and  his  acres.  With  the  dying-out  of  the  old 
theological  and  denominational  zeal,  and  with  the 
ushering-in  of  the  changes  in  living  which  have  marked 
the  fourth  period  of  our  agricultural  development, 
these  conditions  have  rapidly  changed.  The  theologi- 
cal abstractions  have  ceased  to  interest;  the  moralizing 
to  attract.  The  telephone,  the  rural-mail  delivery,  the 
trolley,  and  better  roads  have  destroyed  the  old  isola- 
tion, which  made  the  meeting-house  a  social  center  as 
well  as  a  place  of  worship. 

Dying  churches.  During  the  past  thirty  years  thou- 
sands of  churches  have  died  from  exhaustion.  Some 
have  died  because  the  old  families  which  once  sup- 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS       77 

ported  them  have  left;  many  others  because,  due  to  a 
decline  in  religious  interest,  there  was  no  longer  suffi- 
cient attendance  or  support  to  maintain  them.  No  one 
section  has  a  monopoly  of  this  mortality.  Every- 
where, from  Maine  to  California,  it  is  the  same  story. 
It  has  been  asserted  that  to-day  half  the  population  of 
a  dozen  states  almost  never  goes  to  church;  while  of 
Illinois,  the  very  center  of  the  agricultural  life  of  the 
northern  part  of  the  nation,  it  has  been  asserted  that 
there  are  more  communities  without  the  gospel  than 
in  any  other  state  in  the  Union.  In  consequence  about 
one  half  of  the  fifty-three  million  children  in  the  United 
States  do  not  attend  a  Sunday  school.  Among  Prot- 
estants the  proportion  not  attending  reaches  three 
out  of  every  five.  In  the  rural  districts  the  condition 
is  largely  due  to  the  dying  out  of  the  churches  which 
once  offered  the  opportunity  for  Sunday  school  in- 
struction. 

Studies  of  the  rural-church  problem  have  been  made 
in  the  New  England  States,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  Illinois,  Georgia,  and  other  states.  Everywhere 
the  results  are  about  the  same.  Rural-Life  Confer- 
ences and  Rural  Church  Surveys  generally  report 
rather  uniform  conditions  for  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  —  dead  and  abandoned  churches  by  the  thou- 
sands and  thousands  more  about  to  die.  One  of  the  im- 
portant denominations  of  the  Southern  States  recently 
reported  1032  out  of  3500  rural  churches  as  without 
pastors,  while  1600  of  the  3500  churches  had  had  no 


78 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


additions  during  the  year  by  confession  of  faith.  In 
the  Methodist  Church,  for  example,  which  is  perhaps 
the  most  widely  spread  rural  denomination,  there  has 
been  a  great  consolidation  of  churches  and  circuits  in 
the  Northern  States,  since  1900,  made  necessary  by 
these  new  conditions.  A  number  of  causes  for  this 
state  of  affairs  exist.   In  part  they  are  related  to  the 


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Fig.  21.  SPIRITUAL  ILLITERACY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

A  mnp  prepared  as  a  result  of  a  surve.v  by  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  of 
North  America,  and  reproduced  by  permission.  The  map  shows  the  distribution  of 
27,000.000  children  and  youth  (under  45  years),  nominally  Protestant,  who  are  not 
enrolled  in  Sunday  school  (19iO)  and  who  receive  no  formal  or  systematic  religious 
training. 

great  changes  in  the  nature  of  rural  life  which  we  have 
previously  traced;  in  part  they  are  also  due  to  a  change 
in  attitude  toward  the  old  religious  problems. 

Problems  which  the  Church  faces  to-day.  The 
church,  in  the  mean  time,  has  done  little  to  meet  these 
new  life  conditions.  Piety  has  remained  largely  an 
isolated  thing,  instead  of  being  made  an  expression  of 
earnest  human  life;  creed  has  been  exalted  above  char- 
acter and  good  works;  while  denominationalism  haa 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS      79 

divided  the  people  and  prevented  a  united  fight 
against  the  real  devils  of  our  modern  days,  —  drunk- 
enness, vulgarity,  licentiousness,  ignorance,  and  the 
devils  within  one's  self.  The  false  conceptions  of  the 
world  as  one  of  sin  and  corruption;  the  attempt  at 
repression  instead  of  guidance  in  dealing  with  the 
young;  of  religion  as  something  external  and  apart 
from  daily  life;  and  the  exaltation  of  the  clergy,  — 
these  have  all  alike  tended  to  isolate  the  church  and  to 
divorce  religion  from  the  people. 

The  church  finds  itself  in  an  even  worse  predica- 
ment in  those  regions  where  farm  laborers  or  tenants 
of  the  newer  type  of  immigrants  are  found.  These 
newcomers,  nearly  all  of  whom  are,  nominally,  at 
least,  members  of  the  Roman  or  Greek  Catholic 
churches,  find  little  or  nothing  in  these  old  Protestant 
churches  which  appeals  to  them.  They  know  nothing 
of  their  history,  and  neither  understand  nor  care  for 
their  service.  Their  needs  are  essentially  social  and 
not  religious,  and  the  old  Protestant  churches,  face  to 
face  with  new  peoples  and  new  problems  in  an  altered 
world,  and  with  no  program  for  social  service  worthy 
of  the  name,  know  not  how  to  minister  to  this  poor, 
ignorant,  and  landless  class. 

Great  potential  usefulness,  nevertheless.  It  is  well 
for  us  to  understand  that  the  great  changes  in  living 
which  have  taken  place  have  had  their  effect  on  the 
churches  as  well  as  on  other  social  institutions.  It 
is  especially  important  that  the  plight  in  which  the 


80  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

church  finds  itself  be  understood,  because  the  church 
is  entirely  too  important  an  institution  to  lose.  The 
day  when  it  stood  first  is  perhaps  past,  but  it  still 
remains  one  of  our  greatest  social  institutions,  and  with 
a  possible  usefulness  far  beyond  its  present  rather 
limited  service.  Other  institutions  lack  the  perma- 
nence and  the  historic  past  of  the  church,  as  well  as  its 
spirit  of  sacrifice  and  its  consecration  to  service.  When 
the  church  can  be  awakened  to  a  realization  of  its 
opportunities,  as  has  been  done  in  a  few  places,  it 
stands  almost  first  among  the  institutions  of  society 
for  the  upbuilding  of  the  community  and  for  the  im- 
proving of  its  moral  tone.  Once  the  church  held  such  a 
position  by  natural  right;  to-day  it  can  hold  it  only  by 
successful  competition. 

The  social  mission  of  the  rural  church.  If  the  church 
is  to  be  strong  and  wield  much  influence,  it  must  labor 
to  build  up  the  community  rather  than  itself;  it  must 
look  into  the  future,  as  well  as  into  the  past;  and  must 
first  make  of  itself  an  efficient  earthly  institution  if  it  is 
to  render  a  real  spiritual  service.  The  rural  minister 
needs  economic  and  agricultural  knowledge  more  than 
theological,  that  he  may  use  the  economic  and  agricul- 
tural experiences  of  his  people  as  a  basis  for  the  build- 
ing-up of  their  ethical  life;  he  needs  educational  knowl- 
edge, that  he  may  direct  his  efforts  with  the  young 
along  good  pedagogical  lines;  and  the  church  as  an 
institution  needs  to  study  carefully  the  rural-life  prob- 
lem, and  to  plan  a  program  of  useful  service  along 


RURAL  SOCIETY  AND  INSTITUTIONS       81 

good  educational  and  sociological  lines.  Unless  this  is 
done,  the  church  will  bear  but  little  relationship  to  a 
living  community;  its  influence  on  the  young  will  be 
small;  and  its  mission  of  moral  and  religious  leader- 
ship will  be  forgotten  by  the  people.  In  a  succeeding 
chapter  (v)  a  few  noteworthy  examples  of  such  recon- 
structed churches  will  be  described. 

The  teacher  and  the  church  problem.  It  is  impor- 
tant, too,  that  the  rural  or  village  teacher  recognize  the 
critical  nature  of  the  rural-church  problem,  and  see 
it  as  a  part  of  the  community  educational  problem. 
Because  of  the  importance  of  this,  the  greatly  changed 
conditions  which  face  the  rural  and  village  churches 
to-day  have  been  described  at  some  length.  The  de- 
cline in  influence  of  these  churches  serves  to  modify 
the  whole  rural  educational  problem,  and  consequently 
to  throw  a  much  greater  burden  upon  the  rural  and 
small  village  schools.  In  proportion  as  the  church 
declines  in  social,  moral,  and  religious  influence,  other 
community  forces  must  take  its  place  and  do  its  work. 

Chief  among  these  stands  the  school.  It,  too,  has 
been  hard-pressed  by  the  great  economic  and  social 
changes  which  have  marked  the  third  and  fourth 
periods  of  our  agricultural  development,  and  the  social 
and  educational  demands  now  made  upon  it  are  very 
much  greater  than  they  were  a  generation  or  two  ago. 
It,  too,  generally  speaking,  has  responded  but  little  to 
the  changed  conditions,  and  with  the  result  that  it, 
too,  has  been  left  behind  in  the  progress  of  our  civiliza- 


82  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tion.  Once  an  important  rural-community  institution, 
it  has  to-day,  in  part,  lost  its  former  hold,  and,  like  the 
church,  too  often  fails  to  serve  because  it  has  not 
changed  to  meet  new  rural-life  conditions. 

In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  consider  the  effects  of 
these  great  economic  and  social  changes  on  the  rural 
school,  and  set  forth  something  of  the  condition  in 
which  it  finds  itself  to-day. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  changes  in  social  relationships  are  noticeable  in  the  rural 
communities  you  know  best? 

2.  How  much  do  the  farmers  of  your  community  travel? 

3.  What  has  been  the  general  effect  of  town  life  on  the  families 
which  have  left  the  farm  and  moved  to  town  to  obtain  the  edu- 
cational and  social  advantages  found  there? 

4.  What  has  been  the  general  effect  on  the  rural  life  of  the  replace- 
ment of  these  families  by  tenants? 

5.  What  is  the  moral  level  of  the  villages  and  rural  communities  you 
know  best?  Has  there  been  a  change  recently  for  the  better  or 
the  worse? 

6.  How  much  importance  do  the  people  of  your  community  now 
attach  to: — 

(a)  The  annual  school-district  meeting,  or  election? 
(6)  The  annual  town  or  township  meeting,  or  election? 

7.  Under  what  circumstances  has  either  had  a  large  attendance 
recently? 

8.  How  many  churches  per  family  or  per  adult  male  are  there  in 
your  community? 

9.  What  percentage  of  the  community  attend  them? 

10.  Judging  them  as  community  social  institutions,  what  grade  in 
social  efBciency  would  you  give  them? 

11.  In  how  far  is  the  social  aspect  of  the  Sunday  meeting  still  re- 
tained in  your  community? 

12.  Calculate  the  number  of  families  to  each  church  in  the  Indiana 
township  shown  in  Figure  21,  and  the  cost  per  family  for  any- 
thing like  proper  maintenance. 

13.  Are  the  churches  gaining  or  losing?  Why? 

14.  What  changes  in  church  methods  are  required  to  meet  present 
conditions? 


CHAPTER  IV 

EFFECTS  OF  THESE  CHANGES  ON  THE  RURAL  SCHOOL 

Origin  of  the  district  school.  The  rural  or  district 
school  arose  originally  as  essentially  a  local  community 
undertaking.  In  New  England  it  arose  as  a  part  of  the 
struggle  for  district  rights,  as  opposed  to  the  control 
of  the  old  central  town.  The  unity  of  the  town  was 
broken,  and  local  district  schools,  with  full  local  rights 
in  the  matter  of  taxation  and  control,  followed  as  a 
consequence.  Everywhere  to  the  westward,  where  the 
plan  of  district  organization  was  carried  by  New  Eng- 
land people,  the  district  system  and  the  district  school 
arose  in  response  to  community  needs.  The  simplicity 
and  adaptability  of  the  district  system  to  community 
interests  and  to  the  needs  of  the  pioneer  settlements 
were  strong  features  of  it.  Wherever  half  a  dozen 
families  were  located  near  enough  to  one  another  to 
make  cooperation  for  the  purpose  possible,  and  where 
an  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  a  school  existed, 
the  district-organization  law  permitted  such  to  meet 
together,  to  vote  to  organize  a  district  school,  to  elect 
three  trustees  or  school  directors  to  manage  it  in  the 
interests  of  the  community,  and  to  vote  a  tax  on  them- 
selves or  their  property  to  maintain  the  school  for  the 
length  of  time  decided  upon.    The  organization  pro- 


84 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


ceedings  were  simple  and  easy.  Communities  which 
desired  schools  could  organize  them;  communities 
which  did  not  could  let  them  alone. 

At  first  a  purely  local  undertaking.    When  a  school 
had  once  been  decided  upon,  it  became,  to  a  marked 

degree,  a  commu- 
nity undertaking. 
The  parents  met 
and  helped  to  build 
the  schoolhouse, 
and  hew  out  and 
install  the  furni- 
ture; they  deter- 
mined how  long 
they  would  main- 
tain the  school; 
they  frequently 
decided  whom  they 
desired  as  teacher, 
and  how  much  they  would  pay  the  teacher  in  wages; 
and  they  all  helped  to  provide  the  teacher  with  board 
and  lodging  by  means  of  the  now  obsolete  "  boarding- 
around  "  arrangements.  In  these  earlier  days  there 
was  no  body  of  school  law  of  any  consequence;  no 
county  school  authorities  to  supervise  the  instruction 
of  the  teacher  or  the  acts  of  the  school  trustees;  al- 
most no  state  educational  authorities;  no  body  of  edu- 
cational theory  to  serve  as  a  guide;  and  no  conception 
of  education  as  an  important  function  of  the  state. 


Fis.  22. 


A  TYPICAL  EARLY  SCHOOL 
INTERIOR,  I. 


EFFECTS  ON   THE   RUKAL   SCHOOL         85 

Schools  were  essentially  local  affairs,  directly  related 
to  local  needs  and  local  conceptions;  and  the  extreme 
simplicity  and  democracy  of  the  district  system,  and 
its  adaptability  to  pioneer  conditions,  made  it  the 
natural  system  of  the  early  pioneer  period  of  our  de- 
velopment. 

The  demand  for  state  schools.  With  the  beginning 
of  the  second  period  of  our  agricultural  development, 
we  find  a  new  interest  in  education  beginning  to  mani- 
fest itself  in  all  of  the  Northern  States.  By  1835  the 
ferment  was  working;  in  some  states  it  had  begun  to 
work  still  earlier.  With  the  passing  of  the  pioneer 
period;  the  general  full  attainment  of  manhood  suf- 
frage; the  introduction  of  machinery  and  new  methods 
on  the  farms  which  had  been  rescued  from  the  wilder- 
ness; the  beginnings  of  intercommunication;  the  intro- 
duction of  the  newspaper  and  new  political  discussion; 
the  growth  and  influence  of  the  cities;  and,  a  little 
later,  the  coming  of  the  steam  train,  a  new  need  for 
education  began  to  be  felt.  Public  men  began  to  urge 
general  education  as  a  duty  of  the  state,  and  the  right 
to  a  common-school  education  began  to  be  asserted  as 
the  natural  birthright  of  every  American  boy  and  girl. 
With  the  coming  of  great  numbers  of  Irish  and  Ger- 
mans, after  1846,  public  education  began  also  to  be 
urged  as  a  necessity  for  the  protection  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 

By  1835  the  battle  for  the  general  taxation  of  every 
man's  property  for  the  free  education  of  every  man's 


86 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


Bati  and  Coats 


children  was  on  in  every  Northern  State;  by  1850  it 
was  an  accomplished  fact  in  most  of  our  states.  By 
1870  the  movement  had  extended  into  the  South,  and 

free     common-school 

systems,  with  state 
and  county  school 
officers  to  guide  and 
direct  them,  were 
everywhere  to  be 
found.  Since  then, 
school  districts  and 
schoolhouses  have 
been  multiplied  to 
such  an  extent  that 
schools  are  now  found 
everywhere,  while  the 
principle  of  general 
taxation  for  common 
schools  has  been  ex- 
tended to  many  other  additional  forms  of  public 
education. 

The  second-period  school.  The  rural  and  the  village 
school,  as  we  find  it  at  the  close  of  the  second  period 
of  our  agricultural  development,  was  still  one  of  quite 
meager  proportions.  The  district  system  was  almost 
everywhere  supreme,  and  the  school  still  answered 
closely  to  the  community  needs  and  feelings.  Frame 
schoolhouses  were  replacing  the  log  ones,  and  home- 
made seats  in  rows  in  the  room  had  displaced  the 


^ 


Fib.  23.    A  TYPICAL  EARLY  SCHOOL 
LNTERIOR,   IL 


EFFECTS  ON  THE  RURAL  SCHOOL 


87 


bench  around  the  walls;  but  otherwise  there  was  no 
great  change.  In  an  effort  to  meet  the  needs  of  new 
population  and  to  carry  the  school  nearer  and  nearer 
to  the  people,  the  proceedings  for  creating  new  districts 
by  dividing  old  ones  were  made  simple  and  easy,  and 
new  school  districts  and  new  schoolhouses  were  rapidly 
multiplied.  The  schools  established  were  often  poor 
schools,  measured  by  our  modern  standards,  but  the 
people  believed  in  them  and  were  satisfied  with  them. 
The  exceedingly  democratic  nature  of  the  district 
organization  made  the  school  seem  '*  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  and 
for  the  people." 
In  the  annual 
and  special 
school -district 
meetings  the 
people  guided 
their  represent- 
atives, and  had 
an  immediate 
voice  in  the 
management  of 
the  school.  The 
district  organi- 
zation also  be- 
came a  training  school  for  the  people  in  civil  gov- 
ernment, and  a  means  for  awakening  in  all  a  con- 
ception of  the  needs  and  benefits  of  public  education. 


Pio.  24.     A  SCHOOLMASTER  OF  THE  OLD  TYPE 

(After  a  photograph  in  Clifton  Johnson's  Old  Time 
Schools  and  School  Books.  —  By  permission  of  The 
Macniillan  Co.) 


88  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  people  enjoyed  the  expression  of  their  wishes  and 
opinions  in  the  district  meeting,  and  district  organ- 
ization, in  those  early  days,  doubtless  rendered  a  very 
useful  service. 

The  early  schoolmaster.  In  still  other  ways  the 
early  rural  school  endeared  itself  to  the  people.  The 
earlier  school-teachers  were  nearly  all  men,  and  they 
taught  the  community  in  which  they  worked,  as  well 
as  the  children.  The  teacher  was  commonly  a  student, 
thoughtful,  judicious  in  his  conduct,  and  devoted  to 
his  work.  He  may  not  have  really  known  very  much, 
judged  by  our  present-day  standards,  but  to  the  com- 
munity he  seemed  very  learned.  The  pupils  who  came 
to  him  were  of  all  ages,  from  four  or  five  to  twenty  or 
twenty-one.  Grading,  state  or  county  courses  of  study, 
and  uniform  textbooks  had  not  as  yet  been  introduced. 
Each  pupil  studied  about  what  he  chose,  and  from  the 
book  he  happened  to  have.  Reading  and  recitations 
were  individual;  sums  were  worked  on  the  slate  and 
shown  to  the  teacher.  The  teacher's  work  was  to  main- 
tain order  and  to  direct  effort,  rather  than  to  hear 
pupils  recite,  and  he  strove  to  stimulate  the  children 
to  make  the  best  use  of  the  short  time  they  could 
attend  the  school.  By  means  of  the  "  boarding- 
around  "  arrangement,  under  which  the  teacher  lived 
with  each  family  for  from  one  to  three  weeks  each  win- 
ter, the  family  came  to  know  him  and  he  them  in  a 
way  not  now  possible,  and  both  learned  much  by  the 
contact.  The  weekly  meetings  of  the  literary  society 


EFFECTS   ON  THE  RURAL  SCHOOL        89 

and  the  spelling  contests,  which  were  held  at  the 
school  and  to  which  the  people  came  for  miles  around, 
made  the  old-time  school  a  social  center  for  the  com- 
munity life. 

Efficiency  of  the  education  for  the  time.  One  of  the 
best  evidences  as  to  the  hold  these  old-time  district 
schools  had  on  a  community  is  the  bitterness  with 
which  members  of  the  older  generation  everywhere 
have  opposed  all  attempts  at  a  change  in  the  condi- 
tions. The  school,  in  the  days  of  limited  outlook  and 
limited  knowledge,  was  a  center  of  the  community  life, 
and  provided  instruction  which  was  then  deemed  of 
much  value.  Considering  the  limited  needs  of  the  time, 
the  early  rural  school  was  remarkably  efficient,  and 
the  recollection  of  this  past  efficiency  has  been  a  strong 
force  in  leading  older  men  to  oppose  a  change  in  con- 
ditions. The  rural  school  has  become  endeared  by 
age  and  by  sentiment,  and  those  who  experienced  its 
benefits  have  been  most  vigorous  in  opposing  any 
changes  in  its  organization.  Regardless  of  the  fact 
that  practically  all  of  the  life  conditions  surrounding 
the  rural  school  have  since  materially  changed,  these 
members  of  the  older  generation  are  hardest  to  con- 
vince that  there  is  any  need  of  a  change  in  the  school. 

Changes  in  rural  education  after  about  1870.  Dur- 
ing the  third  period,  and  especially  after  about  1870, 
the  old  conditions  surrounding  rural  and  village  edu- 
cation materially  changed.  The  years  following  the 
Civil  War  were  a  period  of  great  national,  industrial. 


90  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

and  agricultural  development.  Cities  began  to  grow 
rapidly,  and  to  drain  off  the  best  blood  from  the 
country;  manufacturing  of  all  kinds  experienced  won- 
derful development;  the  old  trades  and  small  indus- 
tries of  the  villages  began  to  disappear;  the  fron- 
tier was  pushed  out  to  and  beyond  the  mountains; 
immigration  from  the  north  of  Europe  reached  a 
maximum;  new  lands  and  new  markets  were  opened 
up,  and  new  crops  introduced;  and  a  wonderful  agri- 
cultural expansion  took  place.  Labor-saving  machin- 
ery so  decreased  the  need  for  farm  labor  as  to  cause,  in 
many  places,  an  actual  shrinkage  in  the  rural  popula- 
tion. Life  conditions  also  greatly  changed,  and  the 
old  educative  influence  of  the  home,  the  church,  and 
the  farm  began  rapidly  to  decline.  New  methods  of 
procedure  were  introduced  so  rapidly  that  the  old 
father-to-son  form  of  instruction,  which  had  for  so  long 
prevailed,  gradually  became  inadequate.  New  meth- 
ods of  farming,  calling  now  for  the  application  of  sci- 
entific knowledge,  began  to  be  introduced.  All  of  these 
changes  naturally  tended  to  make  the  instruction 
offered  in  the  rural  school  less  vital  than  it  had  pre- 
viously been. 

The  change  in  direction.  The  rural  and  village 
school,  too,  now  began  to  receive  a  marked  change  in 
direction.  The  school  was  gradually  graded  and  reor- 
ganized. A  course  of  study,  moulded  after  city  lines, 
was  introduced  for  the  guidance  and  direction  of  the 
teacher.     Uniform   textbooks   were   provided.    New 


EFFECTS  ON  THE  RURAL  SCHOOL 


91 


studies  and  new  methods  of  instruction  began  to 
change  the  old  emphasis.  The  old  literary  societies 
and  spelling-bees  gradually  died  out.  The  new  normal- 
trained  female  teacher  now  began  to  make  her  appear- 
ance, and,  after  1880,  the  displacement  of  the  men 
rural  teachers  was  rapid  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 
This  is  well  shown  in  the  chart  reproduced  below. 


Fis.  25.  DECREASING  PERCENTAGE  OP  MEN  TEACHERS 

This  new  teicher  brought  with  her  a  new  and  a  minute 
methodology,  and  the  psychology  of  instruction  for  a 
time  outweighed  all  other  educational  interests.  In 
the  mean  time  the  division  of  districts  went  on  in  an 
effort  to  carry  the  school  nearer  to  the  child,  and  small 
and  inefficient  schools,  lacking  in  money,  equipment, 
and  numbers,  were  everywhere  multiplied  to  such  an 
extent  that  a  small  one-room  rural  school  was,  before 


92  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

long,  to  be  found  every  mile  or  two  apart  in  any  fairly 
well-settled  rural  community. 

The  city-school  influence.  The  marked  develop- 
ment of  city  schools  now  began  to  exert  an  important 
influence.  The  concentration  of  wealth  had  made  it 
possible,  and  the  concentration  of  people  of  many 
different  types  had  made  it  necessary,  that  the  cities 
should  develop  a  class  of  schools  capable  of  meeting 
the  changed  conditions  of  life.  The  cities  accordingly 
began  to  provide  much  more  liberally  for  their  chil- 
dren; high  schools  and  supervision  were  added;  kinder- 
gartens were  organized;  laboratory  and  other  forms  of 
teaching  equipment  were  provided;  and  many  of  the 
newer  branches  of  instruction  were  added,  with  a  view 
to  making  their  schools  attractive  to  parents  and 
useful  to  the  community  supporting  them.  The  city 
schools,  in  consequence,  soon  became  remarkably 
efficient,  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  parents,  and 
soon  drew  to  them  the  best  teachers  and  the  best  edu- 
cational leaders.  The  larger  towns  also  developed 
graded  schools  and  a  high  school,  secured  good  teach- 
ers, provided  a  good  building  and  teaching  equipment, 
and  did  what  they  could  to  make  their  schools  useful 
and  attractive  as  well. 

City-school  ideals  soon  began  to  dominate  all  educa- 
tional aims  and  practices.  The  textbooks  were  written 
more  for  them,  and  their  commercial  and  cultural  aims 
became  of  first  importance.  Education  began  to  lean 
markedly  toward  preparation  for  clerical  and  profes- 


EFFECTS  ON   THE  RURAL  SCHOOL        93 

sional  employments,  and  rural  education  began  to 
lead  away  from  farm  life.  The  agricultural  depression 
of  the  eighties,  due  largely  to  temporary  overdevelop- 
ment, only  stimulated  this  cityward  tendency  in  edu- 
cation. The  teacher,  too,  trained  on  methods  in  the 
city,  came  to  look  upon  country  life  as  a  life  of  hard- 
ship and  country  service  as  a  period  of  probation,  and 
naturally  did  little  or  nothing  to  make  the  rural  school 
minister  to  the  needs  of  rural  life.  The  poor  wages 
paid  rural  teachers,  and  often  the  poor  living  con- 
ditions, only  added  emphasis  to  this  tendency.  The 
teacher  developed  little  interest  in  the  rural  com- 
munity, and  the  community  lost  interest  in  both 
teacher  and  school.  Families  so  situated  as  to  make 
it  possible  sent  their  children  to  the  town  or  the  city 
for  their  education,  while  others  leased  their  farms  and 
moved  to  town  that  they  might  secure  better  educa- 
tional advantages  for  their  children. 

Decline  in  efficiency.  By  the  close  of  the  third 
period  in  our  agricultural  development,  the  shrinkage 
in  the  rural  population  also  began  to  have  its  effect  on 
the  schools.  In  many  places  there  were  fewer  families 
on  the  farms  than  a  generation  before;  and  the  families 
not  infrequently  had  fewer  children.  The  attendance, 
too,  came  to  be  limited  to  the  younger  children,  the 
older  boys  and  girls  who  once  attended  either  going 
now  to  the  high  school  in  town  or  dropping  out  of 
school  altogether.  Schools  in  the  rural  districts  began 
to  lose  materially  in  numbers,  and  the  increasing  num- 


94  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

ber  of  small  and  inefficient  schools  in  the  different 
states  began  to  attract  attention.  It  was  clearly  evi- 
dent to  most  observers  that  the  rural  school  had  lost  its 
early  importance,  and  that  country  people  were  losing 
their  former  interest  in  it.  Soon  the  "  rural-school 
problem  "  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  thoughtful 
persons,  and  to  be  discussed  on  the  platform  and  in  the 
educational  press.  The  problem  was  early  recognized, 
but  just  what  to  do  about  it  was  not  so  clear. 

The  rural  school  and  the  fourth-period  changes. 
The  still  greater  changes  which  have  characterized 
the  fourth  period  in  our  agricultural  development 
have  made  the  problem  of  the  rural  school  still  more 
acute.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  state  aid  which  has 
been  received,  and  the  state  laws  which  have  required 
the  maintenance  and  support  of  the  schools  and  the 
attendance  of  the  children,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  con- 
dition of  the  rural  schools  to-day  would  be  any  better 
than  the  present  condition  of  the  rural  churches.  The 
great  changes  in  the  whole  nature  of  rural  life,  and  the 
reorganization  and  commercializing  of  agriculture, 
which  have  taken  place  largely  since  1890,  have  cre- 
ated entirely  new  demands  on  rural  education  even  in 
the  best  of  communities;  while  the  decline  of  rural  in- 
dustries and  the  decadence  of  the  rural  population  in 
some  places,  and  in  other  places  the  introduction  of  a 
poor  and  an  uneducated  foreign  tenant  class,  have 
created  a  social  problem  which  it  is  difficult  for  the 
rural  school,  organized  as  it  is  at  present,  to  solve. 


EFFECTS  ON   THE   RURAL  SCHOOL        95 

The  result  of  these  many  changes  is  that  the  rural- 
school  problem  has  become  so  complex  that  the  aver- 
age teacher  scarcely  knows  what  to  do,  or  how  to  deal 
with  the  situation  which  confronts  her;  while  the  abso- 
lute inadequacy  of  the  rural  school  of  to-day  to  meet 
the  new  educational  and  social  needs  of  to-morrow  is 
evident  to  any  one  who  has  studied  the  problem.  The 
situation  calls  for  educational  insight  and  leadership 
of  a  high  order,  and  for  a  reorganization  of  rural 
education  under  some  authority  of  larger  jurisdic- 
tion and  knowledge  than  that  of  the  district-school 
trustee. 

New  fourth-period  demands.  The  many  changes 
which  have  characterized  the  fourth  period  of  our 
agricultural  development  have  also  created  new  de- 
mands on  rural  education  which  the  rural  schools  have 
been  very  slow  to  meet.  The  great  change  in  agricul- 
tural methods  and  the  great  increase  in  scientific 
knowledge  relating  to  simple  agricultural  processes 
have  created  a  new  body  of  knowledge  of  fundamen- 
tal importance  to  country  people.  The  old  traditional 
knowledge  and  methods  in  agriculture  are  each  year 
being  relegated  to  the  rear,  and  the  boy  of  to-day  fre- 
quently knows  more  about  agricultural  processes  than 
his  father.  New  standards  in  education  have  been 
created,  and  new  demands  have  been  made  upon  the 
school.  With  the  passing  of  the  old  home  conditions, 
too,  when  the  home  and  the  farm  were  places  where 
nearly  all  of  the  simple  arts  of  life  were  practiced,  the 


96  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

demand  for  practical  instruction  relating  to  home  life, 
to  meet  the  changed  conditions  of  living,  has  also  come 
to  be  heard.  The  old  limited  education,  based  on  a 
drill  on  the  so-called  fundamentals  of  knowledge,  no 
longer  suffices.  It  does  not  meet  the  needs  of  the  new 
situation  which  has  been  created,  nor  is  it  extensive 
enough  to  meet  modern  needs.  The  farmer  now  wants 
high-school  as  well  as  elementary-school  advantages 
for  his  children. 

Gradual  desertion  of  the  rural  school.  With  the 
increasing  ease  with  which  rural  people  can  now  send 
their  children  to  the  town  or  city,  generally  to  a  better 
teacher  and  a  better  school,  the  competition  of  better 
education  elsewhere  has  also  contributed  to  the  weak- 
ening of  the  old  rural  school.  The  more  intelligent 
and  the  more  commercially  and  agriculturally  progres- 
sive the  rural  community,  the  more  the  dissatisfaction 
with  the  little  district  school  expresses  itself,  and  the 
more  the  school  suffers  as  a  consequence.  The  cumula- 
tive effect  of  these  many  changes  has  been  manifest  not 
only  in  a  decline  in  attendance  and  importance  of  the 
rural  school,  but  also  in  an  increasing  demand  that 
rural  education  should  execute  a  right-about-face  and 
begin  seriously  to  minister  to  these  new  needs  of  coun- 
try life.  The  old  subjects  of  instruction  need  to  be 
reorganized  and  redirected,  new  subjects  of  instruction 
added,  and  teachers  with  an  understanding  of  rural 
needs  found  and  trained. 

**  The  strong,  virile,  rural  school  of  a  generation 


EFFECTS  ON   THE   RURAL  SCHOOL        97 

ago,"  says  a  recent  writer  on  the  subject,  "  has  gone, 
and  in  its  place  is  a  primary  school  weak  in  numbers 
and  lacking  in  eflBciency.  School  buildings  are  poor, 
unsanitary,  and  ill-equipped.  The  school  enrollment 
is  constantly  decreasing.  The  supervision  is  wholly 
inadequate.  The  cost  of  instruction  is  higher  than  in 
the  cities.  The  terms  are  short.  The  teaching  body  is 
immature  and  lacks  proper  training.  Of  the  12,000,000 
rural-school  children,  constituting  a  clear  majority  of 
the  youth  of  school  age,  less  than  25  per  cent  are  com- 
pleting the  work  of  the  grades." 

Present  inadequacy  of  the  old  education.  The  great 
changes  of  the  past  twenty  years  which  have  marked 
the  urbanization  of  rural  life  have  also  had  their  effect 
on  the  little  country  school.  With  the  hundreds  of  new 
interests  which  have  been  brought  home  to  country 
people,  and  the  wider  contact  with  people  and  with 
life,  the  old  type  of  rural-school  education  has  ceased 
to  satisfy  as  it  once  did.  With  the  new  interests  enter- 
ing the  home,  and  the  decline  in  importance  of  the 
church,  new  problems  in  moral  as  well  as  intellectual 
education  have  come  to  the  front.  The  inadequacy  of 
the  old  book  education  is  gradually  becoming  appar- 
ent, and  it  is  seen  that  the  education  of  children  must 
involve  the  moral  and  physical,  as  well  as  a  new  type 
of  the  intellectual.  The  recent  World  War  gave 
added  emphasis  to  the  need  for  a  reconstruction  of 
rural  education. 

The  introduction  of  commercialized  agriculture,  on 


98  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  one  hand,  and  the  introduction  of  farm  tenantry,  on 
the  other,  have  alike  further  comphcated  the  problem 
of  the  rural  school.  Neither  the  owner  nor  the  tenant 
has  the  same  interest  in  the  little  rural  school  as  had 
the  farmer  of  the  home-builder  type,  and  neither  is 
now  interested  in  its  support.  As  a  result  the  schools 
have  in  many  places  declined  in  attendance  or  been 
closed,  while  in  others  the  former  complexion  of  the 
school  population  has  been  largely  or  entirely  changed. 
With  the  changing  tenantry,  from  one  third  to  one 
half  of  the  children  are  new  to  the  school  each  year. 
The  children  change,  the  trustees  change,  and  the 
interest  in  the  maintenance  of  a  good  school  declines. 
As  the  newer  type  of  farm  tenants  comes  in,  the  homo- 
geneous character  of  the  school  population  is  broken, 
and  a  social  problem  is  created  which  tends  further  to 
the  disintegration  of  the  rural  school. 

Breakdown  of  the  old  administrative  system.  Under 
the  stress  of  the  new  conditions,  the  old  supervision  of 
the  school  by  district  authorities  has  also  completely 
broken  down.  A  half-century  ago  it  was  possible  for 
the  locally-elected  trustees  or  school  directors  to  direct 
the  teacher  and  to  supervise  the  instruction  fairly  well. 
Aside  from  the  discipline  and  the  material  environment 
there  was  little  to  supervise.  To-day,  with  the  newer 
conceptions  of  educational  work,  and  the  new  social, 
industrial,  and  educational  problems  facing  the  rural 
school,  the  need  for  intelligent  direction  and  leadership 
is  far  beyond  what  any  but  the  most  intelligent  com- 


EFFECTS   ON   THE   RURAL   SCHOOL 


99 


munities  can  supply.  The  rural-life  problem  is  now 
far  too  complex  and  far  too  difficult  to  be  solved  by 
isolated  local  effort.  Inexpert  local  authority  does  not 
have  the  grasp  of  the  newer  problem  necessary  to  corh 
tribute  much  toward  its  solutici. 


/r 

/ 

} 

Increasing  Cost  of  Education,  per 
Pupil  in  Average  Daily,  Attendance 

) 

P 

1 

.V 

/^ 

#;> 

A 

"-^ 

V7estern 

^^ 

7=^ 

/y 

-/^"•'"s 

H 

C^ 

''piv.  ' 

A 

^ 

South 
South 

_AUa]riti. 

^^^^^ 

Central 

Div. 

$70. 


60. 


50. 


40. 


30. 


20. 


10, 


Fig.  26.  INCREASING  COST  OF  EDUCATION,  PER  PUPIL,  IN 
AVERAGE  DAILY  ATTENDANCE 

Increasing  needs  and  cost.  Perhaps  the  most  serious 
difficulty  which  the  rural  schools  have  had  to  face 
within  the  past  two  decades  has  been  the  financial  one. 
The  many  changes  in  the  character  of  public  educa- 
tion, which  have  been  marked  features  of  our  recent 
development,  have  all  tended  to  increase  its  cost,  and 
this  increasing  cost  has  borne  heavily  on  the  rural 


100  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

school.  Everywhere  the  demands  of  the  state  have 
increased,  and  parallel  to  this  has  been  the  constantly 
increasing  cost  of  all  living.  Since  about  1895  these 
two  forces  have  united,  and  the  effect  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  chart. 
The  state,  on  its  part,  has  been  insistent  that  the 
character  of  the  school  should  be  improved,  and  to 
that  end  has  demanded  longer  school  terms,  better 
schoolhouses  and  sanitary  appliances,  better- trained 
and  better-educated  teachers,  and  higher  taxation  for 
schools.  On  the  other  hand,  the  cities  have  rapidly 
increased  their  wages  and  other  educational  expenses, 
thus  enabling  them  to  draw  off  the  best  teachers  from 
the  rural  districts.  The  teachers,  too,  have  experienced 
the  increasing  cost  of  living,  and  with  the  possibilities 
open  of  going  to  the  city  or  of  changing  to  other  forms 
of  better-paid  employment,  have  demanded  and  ob- 
tained better  yearly  salaries.  New  schoolhouses  and 
supplies  of  all  kinds  have  also  cost  more  than  formerly. 
Longer  terms  have  been  provided,  and  the  laws  of  a 
number  of  states  have  recently  fixed  a  minimum  wage 
for  teachers,  and  have  required  that  rural  districts 
shall  also  pay  the  tuition  of  such  of  their  pupils  as 
attend  the  neighboring  high  schools. 

The  burden  of  taxation.  All  of  these  increases  in  cost 
have  meant  increased  taxation.  In  rural  communities 
where  the  third-period  conditions  still  prevail,  and 
where  the  sturdy  home-builder  type  of  farmer  is  the 
rule,  the  increased  prices  received  for  farm  jproducts 


EFFECTS  ON   THE  RURAL   SCHOOL       101 

have  made  it  possible  to  meet  the  increased  rate  with- 
out serious  effort.  On  the  other  hand,  where  farm  ten- 
antry has  come  to  be  the  rule,  the  burden  naturally  falls 
upon  the  non-resident  owners,  who  are  now  but  little 
interested  either  in  maintaining  or  in  improving  the 


Fig.  27.  mCREASING  LENGTH  OF  TERM,  IN  DAYS 


rural  school.  In  such  cases  the  increases  have  natu- 
rally been  resisted.  In  regions  where  intensive  market 
gardening  as  a  business,  conducted  by  a  non-resident 
owner,  or  where  the  large  corporation  farm,  man- 
aged as  a  business  undertaking,  has  been  created,  the 
owners  of  the  land  are  naturally  not  vitally  inter- 
ested in  the  maintenance  of  what  often  seems  to  them 
an  unnecessary  number  of  small  and  inefficient  rural 
schools. 


102  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Present  plight  of  the  rural  school.  The  result  of 
these  many  changes  in  rural-life  conditions,  brought 
about  by  the  changing  economic  and  social  conditions 
which  we  have  previously  described  more  or  less  in 
detail,  is  that  the  rural  school  has  lost  its  earlier  im- 
portance and  finds  itself  to-day  in  a  somewhat  sorry 
plight.  It  is  no  longer,  generally  speaking,  the  impor- 
tant community  institution  which  it  was  forty  or  fifty 
years  ago.  It  has  largely  ceased  to  minister,  as  it  once 
did,  to  community  needs;  its  teacher  no  longer  plays 
the  important  part  in  neighborhood  affairs  that  he 
used  to  play;  it  has  lost  much  of  its  earlier  importance 
as  a  community  center;  its  attendance  has  frequently 
shrunk  to  a  small  fraction  of  what  it  once  was;  it  finds 
itself  in  a  serious  financial  condition;  and  it  has  been 
left  far  behind,  educationally,  by  the  progress  which 
the  schools  of  the  neighboring  towns  and  cities  have 
made.  Managed  as  it  has  been  by  rural  people,  them- 
selves largely  lacking  in  educational  insight,  penurious, 
and  with  no  comprehensive  grasp  of  their  own  prob- 
lems, the  rural  school,  except  in  a  few  places,  has  prac- 
tically stood  still.  The  increased  standards  for  certifi- 
cation have,  very  properly,  prevented  the  untrained 
and  relatively  uneducated  country  girl  from  serving  as 
a  teacher,  while  the  city-trained  and  too  often  city- 
sick  teacher,  with  little  comprehension  of  rural  life  or 
interest  in  rural  people,  and  with  no  training  to  fit  her 
to  minister  to  the  real  community  needs,  has  not  con- 
tributed anything  of  importance  to  the  solution  of  the 


EFFECTS  ON  THE   RURAL   SCHOOL       103 

rural-school  problem.  This  problem,  tied  up  as  it  is 
with  the  whole  rural-life  problem,  has  now  become  too 
complex  to  be  solved  by  local  effort  alone,  and  nothing 
short  of  a  reorganization  of  rural  education,  along  good 
educational  and  administrative  lines,  will  meet  the 
needs  of  the  present  and  of  the  future.  This  reorganiza- 
tion it  shall  be  our  purpose,  in  the  second  part,  to  out- 
line somewhat  in  detail. 

QUESTIONS   FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  About  when,  so  far  as  you  can  learn,  did  the  schools  of  your 
community  experience  the  change  in  direction  described  on  pp. 
90-91? 

2.  Assuming  that  no  state  or  county  aid  for  schools  had  been 
granted,  and  no  laws  requiring  the  maintenance  of  schools  had 
existed,  during  the  past  half-century,  in  what  condition  would 
the  rural  schools  of  your  district  be  to-day?  How  would  they 
compare  in  efficiency  with  the  churches? 

3.  How  strong  are  your  rural  schools  in  the  affections  of  the  more 
intelligent  rural  people? 

4.  How  do  the  number  and  size  of  the  rural  schools  of  your  com- 
munity compare  with  conditions  ten  years  ago? 

5.  Explain  what  are  some  of  the  new  demands  on  rural  educa- 
tion brought  about  by  the  changes  of  the  fourth  period  of  our 
agricultural  development. 

6.  Why  has  farm  tenantry  tended  to  prevent  increased  support  for 
rural  schools? 

7.  In  what  ways  has  the  district  system  of  school  administration 
broken  down  under  the  stress  of  the  new  conditions? 

8.  The  educational  demands  of  the  state  should  increase  rather 
than  decrease.  If  they  do,  what  will  be  the  effect  on  rural 
education? 

9.  Are  the  people  of  your  community  satisfactorily  solving  the 
rural-school  problem,  or  not? 

10.  Have  you  any  examples  in  your  county  of  revitalized  and 
redirected  rural  schools? 

11.  Are  your  rural  schools  centers  for  the  community  life? 


CHAPTER  V 

RURAL  LIFE   AND  NEEDS  OP  TO-DAY 

Reconstruction  and  reorganization  necessary.  The 
great  changes  which  have  taken  place  during  the  past 
half-century  in  practically  all  of  the  conditions  sur- 
rounding rural  life  have  created  a  rural-life  problem  of 
large  dimensions,  which  we  are  now  beginning  to  recog- 
nize and  to  try  to  solve.  The  mere  enumeration  of  the 
changes  which  have  taken  place,  and  the  statement  of 
the  condition  in  which  almost  all  of  the  old-established 
institutions  of  rural  society  find  themselves  to-day,  as 
given  in  the  preceding  chapters,  are  sufficient  to  show 
the  need  of  a  remodeling  and  a  redirecting  of  these 
old  institutions  if  they  are  to  continue  to  render  useful 
service.  Their  reconstruction  and  reorganization  are 
necessary  if  rural  society  is  to  meet  successfully  the 
changed  conditions  of  modern  rural  life.  Temix)rary 
palliatives  and  expedients  may  be  applied,  and  tem- 
porary defense  work  may  be  employed,  and  perhaps 
with  some  temporary  success;  but  only  a  fundamental 
reorganization  will  place  rural  social  institutions  and 
rural  life  in  a  condition  to  meet  effectively  the  needs 
of  the  future.  Such  reconstruction  and  reorganiza- 
tion ought  to  be  comprehensive  and  fundamental, 
and  because  of  this,  naturally  will  require  time  for 
accomplishment. 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  NEEDS  OF  TO-DAY    105 

The  educational  deficiency.  The  main  single  defi- 
ciency in  rural  life  to-day  is  the  lack  of  enough  of  the 
right  kind  of  education.  The  general  lack  of  scientific 
knowledge  relating  to  farming  and  to  the  needs  of  rural 
home  life,  on  the  part  of  rural  people,  has  long  been  a 
common  observation.  Conversely,  the  main  single 
remedy  which  must  be  applied  to  the  rural-life  prob- 
lem is  educational,  and  consists  largely  in  a  redirection 
of  rural  education  itself.  By  means  of  a  redirected 
education,  we  may  hope  to  disseminate  new  knowledge 
relating  to  rural-life  needs  and  problems;  to  teach 
young  people  simple  agricultural  facts  and  processes; 
to  awaken  a  deep  love  for  the  open  country  on  the 
part  of  those  born  there  and  a  desire  to  live  there;  to 
develop  better  standards  of  taste  for  estimating  pleas- 
ures and  attractions  outside  the  farm;  to  stir  into  ac- 
tion community  forces  which  are  now  dormant;  and 
to  make  of  the  rural  school  a  strong  and  efficient  social 
center,  working  for  the  upbuilding  of  all  the  varied 
interests  of  a  healthy  rural  life.  Because  the  rural 
school  is  to-day  in  a  state  of  arrested  development, 
burdened  by  educational  traditions,  lacking  in  eff'ec- 
tive  supervision,  controlled  largely  by  rural  people, 
who,  too  often,  do  not  realize  either  their  own  needs 
or  the  possibilities  of  rural  education,  and  taught  by 
teachers  who,  generally  speaking,  have  but  little  com- 
prehension of  the  rural-Hfe  problem  or  of  the  possibil- 
ities of  a  reorganized  and  redirected  rural  school,  the 
task  of  reorganizing  and  redirecting  rural  education  is 


} 


106  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

difficult,  and  will  necessarily  be  slow.  This  reorganiza- 
tion and  redirection  of  rural  education,  is,  however,  the 
main  key  to  the  solution  of  the  rural-life  problem,  and 
the  sooner  it  can  be  accomplished  the  better  it  will  be 
for  rural  life.  The  lines  along  which  this  must  be  car- 
ried out  are  given  in  some  detail  in  the  second  part  of 
this  volume,  and  we  accordingly  postpone  further  con- 
sideration of  this  need  until  we  reach  the  second  part. 
The  great  rural  social  problem.  Xhe  real  underlying 
social  problem,  though,  which  faces  us  in  a  considera- 
tion of  the  rural-life  problem  of  to-day,  is^hat  of,  how  I 
to  maintain  a  satisfactory  American  civilization  on  the  | 
farms  of  our  nation.  Large-tract  commercial  farming  I 
by  individuals  or  by  companies,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
farm  tenantry  on  the  other,  are  not  conducive  to  such 
an  end,  and  are  not  best  for  rural  life  or  for  the  state. 
Farm-ownership  by  the  many  rather  than  by  the  few, 
and  farm  ownership  rather  than  farm  tenantry,  are 
what  are  most  desired.  The  typical  American  farmer 
of  the  past  has  been  essentially  a  man  of  the  intelligent 
middle  class,  owning  a  medium-sized  farm,  maintain- 
ing a  good  standard  of  living,  educating  his  children 
well,  and  he  himself  interested  in  the  neighborhood  and 
in  local  affairs.  Such  he  still  is  in  the  great  majority 
of  places.  How  to  preserve  this  standard,  and  how  to 
develop  such  standards  in  the  new  farmers,  is  a  verj 
important  social  and  educational  question.  As  much 
as  possible,  we  want  to  retain  on  the  farm,  as  farmers, 
a  class  which  represents  the  best  type  of  American 


RURAL  LIFE   AND  NEEDS  OF   TO-DAY    107 

maiihood  and  womanhood,  and  to  whom  the  farm  is, 
before  all  else,  a  home. 

Ownership  vs.  tenantry.  The  upward  evolution 
from  laborer  to  tenant,  and  from  tenant  to  owner, 
needs  to  be  encouraged  as  much  as  possible.  Con- 
versely, the  change  from  ownership  to  tenantry  is 
unfortunate,  and  can  be  prevented,  in  part,  by  better 
education  and  by  better  laws.  The  ownership  of  land 
is  the  poor  man's  rock  of  defense.  With  free  lands 
practically  at  an  end,  and  with  land  values  rising 
rapidly,  the  power  of  the  laborer  to  save  and  to  accu- 
mulate enough  to  buy  a  small  farm  is  becoming  harder 
each  decade.  While  land  is  still  cheap,  the  poor  man 
should  be  educated  to  thrift  and  helped  to  ultimate 
land-ownership;  and  the  man  of  small  means  who 
owns  a  farm  should  be  prevented  from  losing  it  by 
reason  of  poor  farming  methods.  The  struggle,  in  the 
near  future,  for  land  and  the  food  it  will  produce  will 
be  severe  indeed. 

The  foreign  tenant  understands  the  importance  of 
land-ownership  much  better  than  does  the  native 
American.  The  Italian,  in  particular,  seems  to  have  a 
genius  for  saving  and  obtaining  the  possession  of  land. 
The  Slav,  the  Armenian,  and  the  Japanese  have  also 
much  ability  in  this  direction,  as  has  also  the  better- 
educated  Negro  in  the  South.  Among  the  earlier  immi- 
grants, this  was  a  marked  characteristic  of  the  Scotch, 
Germans,  and  Scandinavians.  These  newly  arrived 
tenants  and  evolving  landowners,  white  or  black,  are 


108  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

everywhere  in  need  of  educational  assistance  and  guid- 
ance. They  need,  in  particular,  such  education  as  will 
enable  them  to  rise  gradually  to  the  best  American 
farming  standards,  and  to  create  a  good  type  of  Amer- 
ican home.  With  such  help  it  is  surprising  how  rapidly 
the  Italian,  Bulgar,  Russian  Slav,  American  Indian, 
or  Southern  Negro  develops  into  a  good  type  of  home- 
owning  American  farmer. 

Important  nxral  economic  interests.  Up  to  very 
recently  the  one  effort  of  the  National  Department  of 
Agriculture  and  of  the  state  colleges  of  agriculture  has 
been  to  increase  the  yield  of  farm  crops,  to  eliminate 
pests  and  diseases,  and  to  improve  the  breeds  of  seeds, 
trees,  and  farm  animals.  This  has  been  very  valuable, 
and  was  essentially  the  right  thing  to  do  in  the  begin- 
ning. Still  more,  such  scientific  work  ought  to  be 
continued  with  energy.  Our  national  food-needs  in  the 
near  future  make  the  promotion  of  national  safety  in 
the  matter  of  a  food-supply  an  important  function  of 
both  state  and  national  governments.  All  this,  too, 
tends  to  make  farming  more  profitable,  and  unless 
agriculture  can  first  be  made  remunerative  to  men  and 
women  of  energy  and  capacity,  farm  life  will  never 
prove  satisfying  to  the  class  we  most  desire  to  retain  on 
the  farms.  Economic  betterment  must  come  first,  and 
without  this  all  attempts  at  educational,  social,  and 
moral  betterment  are  to  a  large  degree  superficial  and 
transitory.  Better  farming  and  better  business  meth- 
ods must  precede  better  living. 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  NEEDS   OF  TO-DAY    109 

Great  rural  interests  human  interests.  The  great 
rural  interests,  however,  are  the  essentially  human 
interests,  and  the  really  important  questions  in  the 
rural-life  problem  are  how  to  improve  the  conditions 
surrounding  human  life  in  the  open  country,  so  as  to 
make  farm  life  less  solitary,  freer  from  sheer  drudgery^ 


Out  of  every  100  Farmers 


29  remain  on  same  farm 
four  years  or  more 


23  for  two  to  faor  yean 


28  for  one  year 


20 


less  than  a  year 


Fia.  28.  RURAL  UNREST  IN  THE  SOUTH 

From  statistics  for  the  Southern  States  published  in  a  survey  of  The  Rural  Sit- 
uation in  tke  South,  and  published  by  the  Conference  for  Education  in  the  South, 
1921. 


fuller  of  opportunity,  and  more  comfortable  and 
attractive  to  the  best  farming  people.  We  hope  ulti- 
mately to  double  the  yield  of  com  and  wheat  and 
cotton,  which  would,  indeed,  be  a  great  achievement; 
but  an  even  more  important  undertaking  would  be 
that  which  would  double  the  comfort,  happiness,  and 
attractiveness  of  life  on  the  farm  to  the  farmer,  his 
wife,  and  his  children.     Aiter  all,  the  farmer  and  his 


110  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

family  are  more  important  than  his  crops,  and  the 
conditions  which  surround  rural  family  life  are  more 
important  than  those  which  surround  the  raising  of 
cows  and  pigs. 

The  magnitude  and  the  national  importance  of  such 
a  problem  in  rural  improvement  will  be  appreciated 
better  if  we  remember  that  nearly  one  half  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  still  live  on  farms,  and 
nearly  one  half  of  the  children  of  our  country  are  still 
educated  in  the  rural  schools.  Figure  28  shows  the 
problem  in  the  Southern  States,  while  Figure  29  shows 
the  percentages  of  the  total  population  living  in  the 
rural  districts  in  each  of  the  states  of  the  Union. 
The  high  percentage  of  rural  population  in  the  im- 
portant agricultural  states  of  the  North  Central 
and  the  Southern  groups,  as  shown  by  this  map,  re- 
veals how  largely  the  problem  of  rural  and  agricul- 
tural improvement  is  there  a  problem  of  rural  educa- 
tion. 

FUNDAMENTAL    RURAL    NEEDS 

To  make  agriculture  remunerative  and  family  life 
in  the  country  attractive  and  satisfying  to  intelligent 
and  progressive  people,  both  of  which  are  necessary 
if  we  are  to  make  much  headway  in  improving  rural 
life,  certain  fundamental  rural  needs  should  be  met. 
In  addition  to  a  redirection  of  rural  education,  which 
will  be  dealt  with  in  detail  in  the  second  part  of  this 
book,  these  may  be  briefly  summarized,  as  follows :  — 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  NEEDS  OF   TO-DAY     111 

1.  Retention  of  Personality 

The  great  economic  success  of  the  farmer  has  tended, 
in  certain  regions,  to  eliminate  him  from  the  rural 
community,  and  the  disintegration  of  many  rural 
communities  is  traceable  in  large  part  to  this  eco- 
nomic success,  to  the  poor  education  provided,  and 
to  a  lack  of  standards  by  which  to  measure  the 
value  of  the  city  pleasures  and  attractions.  The 
removal  of  the  more  successful  farmers  to  town,  as 
well  as  the  desertion  of  the  farm  by  the  more  enterpris- 
ing and  more  energetic  children,  have  alike  tended  to 
rob  many  rural  regions  of  those  men  and  women  of 
forceful  personality  who  alone  give  tone  and  charac- 
ter to  a  community.  The  result  has  been  to  pro- 
duce, in  many  rural  regions,  that  flat  level  of  equal- 
ity where  little  or  no  progress  is  possible.  The  same 
has  been  true  of  little  towns,  many  of  which  to-day  are 
stagnant  because  all  the  boys  of  ability  and  all  the 
girls  who  could  get  away  have  deserted  them  for  the 
greater  opportunities  and  attractions  of  the  city.  In 
the  upper  part  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  one  may  find 
hundreds  of  such  little  towns,  where  leadership  seems 
to  have  disappeared,  and  where  the  people  seem  to 
have  quarantined  against  progress.  One  does  not  find 
such  conditions  in  the  newer  agricultural  communities 
of  the  West  or  the  Southwest,  chiefly  because  the  ini- 
tiative and  spirit  of  the  pioneer  are  still  there.  In 
the  older  agricultural  communities  of  the  Mississippi 


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RURAL  LIFE  AND  NEEDS   OF  TO-DAY    113 

Valley,  though,  this  spirit  is  too  often  entirely  lacking, 
and  for  the  reason  that  the  stronger  and  the  more 
capable  have  gone.  The  community  life,  such  as  it  is, 
no  longer  appeals  to  the  best;  the  fundamental  social 
instincts  remain  unsatisfied;  and  the  higher  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  life  is  not  ministered  unto.  The 
country  seems  lonely,  monotonous,  and  common- 
place; it  lacks  personality  and  leadership;  and  its 
lack  of  sociability  seems  depressing  to  the  young. 
Poor  roads;  poor  residences;  poor  schools;  decaying 
churches;  low  aesthetic  standards;  low  intellectual 
ideals;  lack  of  cooperation  and  harmony;  soil-depletion 
by  unwise  farming;  often  almost  a  contempt  of  scien- 
tific agriculture;  lack  of  good  business  methods;  and  a 
disregard  of  hygienic  laws;  —  all  alike  tend  to  reduce 
the  remuneration  from  farming,  and  to  obscure,  to  old 
and  young  alike,  the  many  advantages  of  rural  life  to 
those  adapted  to  it. 

The  school  and  personality.  To  change  this  condi- 
tion is  the  problem  before  us.  That  the  schools,  man- 
aged as  they  have  been  mainly  by  country  people,  are 
largely  responsible  for  the  condition  in  which  country 
communities  find  themselves  to-day,  there  can  be 
little  question.  The  away-from-the-farm  influence  of 
rural  education  in  the  past  and  its  lack  of  adaptability 
to  rural  needs  have  been  its  marked  characteristics. 
That  the  schools  must  be  the  chief  agent  in  turning 
the  current  in  the  other  direction,  there  also  can  be 
but  little  question.    The  farming  industry  represents 


114  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

a  large  element  in  our  civilization,  and  schools  in  the 
country,  if  they  are  to  be  effective  rural  institutions, 
must  represent  the  civilization  of  their  time  and 
location. 

A  fundamental  need  of  rural  life  of  to-day  is  local 
institutions  which  will  select  and  train  virile  men  and 
women,  men  and  women  of  personality  and  force,  for 
effective  living  in  the  open  country.  This  must  be 
accomplished  chiefly  by  appealing  to  country  people 
themselves,  and  by  offering  an  education  for  country 
living  which  will  reveal  to  young  men  and  young 
women  the  opportunities  and  possibilities  of  life  on 
the  farm.  The  movement  of  city  people  to  the  open 
country  is  not  likely  to  accomplish  much  in  improv- 
ing conditions,  except  in  the  case  of  little  towns,  and 
where  such  people  come  as  suburban  residents  rather 
than  as  farmers. 

S.  Larger  Life  and  Outlook 

Another  fundamental  need  is  the  broadening  of 
rural  life  and  the  giving  to  it  a  larger  outlook.  The 
fundamental  social  instincts  of  youth  —  recreation, 
play,  friendships,  social  life  —  must  be  provided 
for  and  allowed  to  satisfy  themselves.  Many  a  boy 
and  girl  have  been  driven  from  the  farm  by  rea- 
son of  the  life  there  being  all  work  and  no  play. 
In  many  rural  communities  there  is  no  community 
life,  — -  no  body  of  accumulated  common  experi- 
ence, no  common  meeting-ground  and  no  meetings 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  NEEDS  OF  TO-DAY    115 

throughout  the  year,  no  church,  no  store,  no  society,  — 
and  the  young  people  early  form  a  distaste  for  the  life 
this  represents.  This  needs  changing.  Sports  and 
games  should  be  provided,  time  for  recreation  allowed, 
and  the  play  instinct  guided.  Social  meetings  for  the 
young  people,  under  proper  conditions,  are  needed. 
Rural  clubs  of  various  kinds,  for  both  boys  and  girls, 
should  be  organized  and  directed.  The  fundamental 
pedagogical  principle  of  guidance  rather  than  repres- 
sion needs  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  dealing  with  the 
young.  The  elders,  too,  need  to  be  brought  together  in 
friendly  social  meeting,  that  the  rural  outlook  may  be 
enlarged  and  some  sort  of  social  cooperation  estab- 
lished. The  need  for  one  or  more  social  centers  for 
every  rural  community  to  satisfy  these  needs  will  be 
apparent. 

3.   Better  Homes 

For  the  girls  and  the  women,  too,  life  in  the 
country  is  too  often  most  unattractive,  and  too 
often  unnecessarily  harsh  and  exhausting.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  they  have  a  much  harder  time  than  the 
men  and  boys.  Successful  farming,  though,  is  essen- 
tially a  partnership  business  between  a  man  and  a 
woman,  and  much  of  the  success  of  the  undertaking 
depends  upon  the  woman.  Whatever  can  be  done  to 
make  her  work  simpler  and  easier  to  do,  and  to  enable 
her  to  develop  some  other  interests  than  mere  house- 
work, ought  to  be  done  for  the  sake  of  farming  effi- 


116  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

ciency,  if  not  for  humane  reasons.  A  farmer  ought  to 
take  as  good  care  of  his  chief  human  burden-bearer  as 
he  does  of  his  brood-mare  or  his  prize  fat-producing 
cow.  Too  often  the  man  takes  all  the  advantages,  and 
gives  the  woman  few  or  none.  He  buys  the  best  of 
machinery,  drives  good  horses  to  his  buggy  or  drives 
an  automobile,  and  builds  good  barns  for  his  grain  and 
his  stock.  Often  machinery  for  pumping  water  and 
doing  other  labor  is  installed,  to  save  the  labor  of 
hired  men.  Yet,  notwithstanding  his  clear  perception 
of  the  importance  of  labor-saving  machinery  when 
applied  to  farm  work,  and  of  proper  housing  for  his 
stock,  the  residence,  where  the  women  do  the  work 
and  the  children  grow  up  and  have  their  tastes  formed, 
is  often  almost  entirely  devoid  of  labor-saving  con- 
veniences. Often  it  is  inconveniently  arranged,  small, 
crowded,  and  ugly  as  well.  There  is  little  doubt  but 
that  the  desire  of  the  women  to  escape  from  the  hard 
labor  and  tbe  unattractive  surroundings  by  moving  to 
the  city,  to  secure  city  conveniences  and  better  resi- 
dences, has  been  a  strong  influence  in  the  cityward 
movement  of  farmers'  families  during  the  past  decade. 
Better  kitchens.  The  narrow  life  of  the  women, 
with  its  drudgery  and  lack  of  outlook,  is  seriously  in 
need  of  improvement.  Domestic  labor  on  the  farm  is 
hard  to  get,  so  that  the  woman's  part  should  be  sim- 
plified as  much  as  possible.  As  new  farmhouses  are 
constructed,  or  old  ones  repaired,  they  should  be  con- 
structed with  a  view  to  making  the  housework  easy 


RURAL  LIFE  AND   NEEDS   OF  TO-DAY    117 

to  do,  and  labor-saving  devices,  to  make  easier  the  lot 
of  women,  ought  to  be  installed.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  for  from  $500  to  $1500,  varying  with  the  extent 
and  size  of  the  equipment,  there  can  be  installed  in  any 
farmhouse  practically  all  of  the  conveniences  which 
city  people  to-day  enjoy.  The  gasoline  engine  and  the 
electric  motor  have  made  it  possible  greatly  to  simplify 
housework  on  the  farm.  Running  water,  within  and 
without  the  house;  washing  and  ironing  by  machinery; 
vacuum  cleaning;  and,  where  electric  current  is  avail- 
able, lighting  and  cooking  by  electricity,  are  now  within 
the  reach  of  the  farm  home.  A  little  money  put  into 
homes  in  which  it  is  easy  to  do  housework,  and  which 
are  easy  to  keep  clean,  will  do  much  toward  making 
rural  life  more  attractive  to  both  women  and  children. 
Add  to  this  a  comfortable,  well-planned,  and  an  archi- 
tecturally attractive  house,  with  lawn,  flowers,  and 
long-lived  trees  about  it,  and  we  have  a  combination 
which  is  of  fundamental  importance  in  instilling  a  love 
for  home-life  in  the  country. 

^.  A  Community  Center 

Perhaps  the  greatest  social  need  of  rural  communi- 
ties is  some  kind  of  a  community  center,  where  men, 
women,  and  children  may  meet  frequently,  for  various 
educational  and  social  purposes.  Life,  once  narrowly 
individualistic,  is  to-day  essentially  social  and  coopera- 
tive, and  the  relations  of  man  to  man,  and  the  re- 
sponsibility of  man  for  his  neighbor  and  his  neighbor's 


118 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


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child,  were  never  so  strongly  emphasized  as  they  are 
to-day.  Education  has  given  a  new  importance  to 
youth,  and  life  to-day  holds  new  and  enlarged  values 
for  both  old  and  young.  In  a  city,  by  reason  of  the  many 
means  of  social  contact  and  the  closeness  of  man  to 
man,  cooperative  efforts  for  the  common  good  and  the 

public  welfare 
are  easy  to  start 
and  to  carry 
along.  In  the 
country,  though, 
where  people  are 
so  separated  by 
mere  distance, 
and  so  strongly 
individualistic, 
it  is  much  more 
difficult  to  secure 
effective  cooper- 
ation, and  the  need  of  a  common  meeting-place  and 
of  a  community  center  to  develop  a  community  life 
and  spirit  is  more  important  than  in  the  towns  and 
cities. 

Early  centers  for  the  community  life.  In  the  earlier 
days  the  barn-raisings,  huskings  and  quilting-bees, 
and  singing-schools  afforded  opportunity  for  such  con- 
tact, but  these  have  long  since  passed  away.  The 
earlier  school,  with  its  spelling-matches  and  literary 
societies,  also  once  contributed  much  to  this  end.  But 


0' 


Pio.  30.  A  COMMUNITY  CENTER  OF  LARGE 
INFLUENCE,  IN  THE  WRONG  DIRECTION 


RURAL  LIFE   AND  NEEDS   OF  TO-DAY    119 


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Fio.  31.    DIAGRAM  OF  A  COTTNTRT  COMMUNITY-CENTER 

Including  school,  church,  town  hall,  and  industrial  plant.  Reproduced 
here  from  Circular  84,  Oflace  of  Experiment  Stationfl,  U.S.  Department  of 
Agriculture. 


120  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  spelling-matches  and  the  literary  societies  have  now 
ceased  to  exist.  The  church  once  answered  the  need, 
but  to-day  sectarianism,  the  dying-out  of  the  old  kind 
of  faith,  the  lack  of  a  social  program,  and  the  immi- 
gration of  new  peoples  have  destroyed  its  former  hold, 
while  new  interests  and  new  knowledge  have  carried 
the  community  in  other  directions.  In  most  rural  com- 
munities to-day  there  is  no  community  center  worthy 
of  the  name,  and  as  a  result  the  increasing  social  needs 
of  the  people  remain  unsatisfied.  There  is  no  common 
community  experience  or  interest;  the  community  does 
not  meet  together  from  one  year's  end  to  another, 
and  it  is  never  united  in  any  worthy  cooperative  effort. 
In  such  communities  narrow  attitudes  are  common; 
there  is  no  community  interest  in  progress;  the  children 
lack  social  intercourse  under  good  conditions,  and  do 
not  learn  the  value  of  cooperative  effort;  the  intellec- 
tual life  is  stagnant,  the  moral  and  religious  life  fre- 
quently ebbs;  while  selfishness,  indecency,  vulgarity, 
and  licentiousness  increase. 

The  need  of  a  rural  community -center,  in  which  the 
community  life  may  find  itself,  and  then  express  it- 
self, and  of  vitalized  rural  institutions  which  will  make 
for  progress  and  tend  to  attach  men  and  women  to  the 
soil,  are  fundamental  needs  for  rural  progress  to-day. 
Social  cooperation  is  needed  even  more  than  economic 
cooperation,  and  the  means  of  securing  it  must  be 
found.  It  may  be  that  a  rural  social  center  may  be 
created  at  the  church,  the  Grange  hall,  the  town  hall, 


RURAL   LIFE   AND   NEEDS  OF  TO-DAY    121 


the  rural  library,  or  the  rural  school,  or  by  combining 
all  at  some  central  place;  but  somewhere  and  somehow 
community  centers  need  to  be  established  in  each  rural 
community.  The  women  and  children  need  such  a 
meeting-place  even  more  than  do  the  men. 

(a)  Can  the  church  become  such  a  center  now  ? 
The  possibilities  of 
the  church  meeting  y      \ . 

this  need  and   be-  f^- 

coming  a  center  for 
the  community  life 
are,  in  most  com- 
munities, relatively 
small.  Before  it  can 
do  so  the  church 
must  be  reorgan- 
ized along  entirely 
new  lines. 

One  of  the  first 

noorl  f  r  1         A  $35,000  marble  "many-roomed"  church  erected 

neeuS    OI    our    rural     and  used  by  twelve  different  denominationa.   These 

,      .|l  ,  ,  include  Catholic,  Episcopalian,  Friends,  Reformed 

and  village  CnUrclieS,     Hungarian,  Unitarian,  Universalists,  Presbyterians, 

Christians,    Methodists,   Congregationalists,   Bap- 

if  they  are  to  serve,     tists,  and  Free  Baptists.    All  unite  in  malutaiuing 

cue  efficient  and  serving  church. 

is  the  great  curtail- 
ment and,  if  possible,  the  abolition  of  denomination- 
alism.  The  small  number  of  farmers,  the  changed 
rural  class,  the  new  life  interests  and  conditions,  and 
the  rising  cost  of  church  maintenance  all  alike  call 
for  a  uniting  of  forces  for  religious  work  and  service. 
The  present  system  of  little  struggling  churches  in- 


^:.m'^ 


Fio.  32.    UNION  CHURCH,  PROCTOR,  VT. 


122  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

volves  great  financial  and  moral  waste,  divides  rural 
people  instead  of  uniting  them,  and  destroys  the  op- 
portunity of  the  church  for  large  institutional  useful- 
ness. 

The  problem  is  no  longer  one  of  getting  more 
churches,  but  rather  of  uniting  the  ones  we  now  have 
into  stronger  and  more  efiFective  working  bodies.  This, 
though,  is  very  difficult  of  accomplishment,  as  rural 
people  are  preeminently  hard  to  unify  or  to  organize. 
The  nature  of  their  vocation  emphasizes  individual- 
ity and  independence,  and  new  proposals  are  usually 
received  by  them  with  anything  but  enthusiasm. 
Denominationalism,  too,  is  very  strong  with  many 
people,  particularly  those  of  the  older  generation,  and 
not  much  can  be  expected  at  present  along  this  much- 
needed  line  of  unification.  Still,  federation  and  cooper- 
ation embody  the  dominant  spirit  of  the  age  we  are 
now  entering,  and  the  church  must  fall  in  line  or  be 
left  behind. 

Need  of  a  program  for  social  work.  If  the  church  is 
to  play  any  important  part  in  rural  reorganization,  it 
must  evolve  a  program  for  social  betterment  and  make 
its  ministrations  such  as  will  enable  it  to  render  effec- 
tive social  service.  Only  a  giving  church  is  a  growing 
church.  There  are  many  real  needs  of  rural  people 
which  to-day  call  for  ministration,  and  the  church 
should  set  itself  the  task  of  finding  these  and  then 
trying  to  serve  them.  Then  only  will  its  religion  be- 
come vital  and  effective.  The  old  one-room  meeting- 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  NEEDS  OF  TO-DAY     123 

house,  used  for  a  few  hours  a  week  by  a  few  people, 
and  solely  for  religious  service,  is  an  economic  waste, 
and  needs  gradually  to  give  way  to  a  many-roomed 
social  church,  with  tentacles  reaching  out  in  many 
directions  and  seeking  for  helpful  points  of  contact 
with  the  community  life. 

Need  for  cooperation.  The  church  must  also  unite 
in  cooperative  effort  with  all  of  the  other  great  forces 
working  for  the  upbuilding  of  rural  life,  such  as  the 
Grange,  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the  Y.W.C.A.,  boys'  and 
girls'  clubs  and  Scouts,  farmers'  institutes,  district 
nurses,  the  library,  and  the  school,  and  these  in  turn 
should  cooperate  with  every  living  and  serving  church. 
Organized  service  for  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  stranger, 
and  for  mothers  should  be  developed.  The  need  is  for 
service,  rather  than  preaching.  The  home,  the  school, 
the  vocation,  and  the  social  life  of  the  community  are 
all  important  forces  in  moulding  the  thoughts  and  as- 
pirations of  men,  and  ought  not  to  be  neglected. 

One  great  difEculty  in  trying  to  aid  the  rural  church 
is  that  so  many  churches  and  so  many  ministers  have 
not  as  yet  learned  that  we  live  to-day  in  a  new  world, 
and  that  people  of  to-day  have  more  than  one  funda- 
mental interest  in  life.  In  a  few  places,  however,  the 
church  has  accomplished  such  an  internal  reform,  and 
is  to-day  rendering  social  and  religious  service  of  fun- 
damental importance  in  the  improvement  and  redi- 
rection of  rural  life.  In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  de- 
scribe a  few  examples  of  such  worthy  religious  service. 


124  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

(b)  Rural  organizations.  The  Grange  hall  has  been 
suggested  as  a  possible  community  center,  and  has 
been  so  employed  in  some  places.  The  town  hall  has 
also  been  so  used  in  a  few  places.  The  rural  Y.M.C.A. 
has  also  been  made  effective  here  and  there.  All  of 
these  may  prove  useful  community  forces  in  certain 
places,  and  all  should  be  encouraged  to  extend  their 
usefulness.  All  rural  residents,  however,  may  not 
belong  to  the  Grange;  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the  Y.W.C.A. 
appeal  especially  to  the  young;  and  the  town  hall 
possesses  certain  rather  obvious  limitations.  All  such 
organizations,  as  well  as  boys'  and  girls*  clubs,  farm- 
ers' institutes,  lecture  courses,  and  extension  centers, 
while  an  important  part  of  rural  social  life,  are  much 
more  in  the  nature  of  adjuncts  to,  than  centers  for, 
the  community  life.  The  Grange  hall,  perhaps,  comes 
nearer  to  providing  a  center  for  the  community  life 
than  any  of  the  other  organizations  mentioned  above, 
but  even  it  possesses  certain  obvious  disadvantages  as 
a  center  for  the  community  life. 

(c)  The  rural  library.  The  rural  district  library, 
where  such  an  institution  exists,  has  certain  advan- 
tages as  a  center  for  the  community  life  over  any  of  the 
other  rural  institutions,  so  far  mentioned.  It  is  a  com- 
mon property  of  all,  is  supported  by  all,  and  hence  has 
a  democracy  about  it  which  the  church  and  the  Grange 
do  not  as  a  rule  have.  The  greatest  difficulty  met  with 
is  that  the  rural  library  in  so  many  states  is  non- 
existent, while  in  states  where  it  does  exist,  it  is  too 


RURAL  LIFE   AND   NEEDS  OF  TO-DAY    125 

often  without  a  home  of  sufficient  size  or  attractiveness 
to  meet  the  needs  of  a  community  center.  The  rural 
library,  too,  is  usually  a  purely  passive  agent,  the 
librarian  merely  keeping  the  books  neatly  arranged  on 
the  shelves  and  handing  them  out,  on  demand ;  whereas 
it  ought  instead  to  be  an  active,  energetic  agent  for  the 
improvement  of  rural  community  life.  The  women,  in 
particular,  ought  to  be  brought  to  use  the  rural  library, 
and  a  rural  librarian  ought  not  to  feel  satisfied  if  the 
mothers  and  the  young  people  do  not  come  frequently 
to  use  the  room  and  the  books.  They  will  do  this, 
though,  only  if  the  library  ministers  to  a  vital  com- 
munity need.  Perhaps  it  is  when  connected  with  the 
school  that  the  library  will  reach  its  greatest  degree  of 
usefulness. 

(d)  The  school.  If  the  school  can  be  reorganized 
and  redirected,  as  described  in  Part  ii  of  this  book,  it 
is  possible  to  create,  in  every  rural  community,  an 
admirable  center  for  the  fullest  expression  of  the  com- 
munity life.  It  is  the  one  rural  institution,  excepting 
the  library,  which  is  supported  by  all  and  equally  open 
to  all.  It  represents  no  church,  no  party,  no  organiza- 
tion, no  lodge,  and  no  single  group  or  interest,  but 
rather  all  such  organizations  united  together  for  the 
common  welfare.  It  possesses  a  great  advantage  over 
all  the  other  institutions  so  far  mentioned  in  that  its 
labors  are  directed  to  the  education  and  improvement 
of  the  children  of  all  the  people,  and  this  can  be  used 
as  a  great  unifying  idea.    Without  attempting  to  go 


126  RURAL  LIFE  AND    EDUCATION 

into  detail  here,  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  possible  so  to 
change  and  so  to  redirect  the  rural  school  that  the 
building  will  become  the  community  meeting-place, 
with  the  other  community  interests  centering  about 
it,  and  the  school  itself  will  become  a  center  for  the 
improvement  of  the  community  life.  In  Part  n  we 
shall  describe,  in  some  detail,  how  this  may  be  done. 

5.  Community  Life 

The  rural-life  problem,  as  we  stated  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  chapter,  is  one  calling  for  a  reconstruction 
and  a  reorganization  of  rural  social  institutions.  The 
old  institutions  need  to  be  reorganized,  redirected, 
and  quickened  into  new  life.  The  place  (or  places) 
where  this  new  life  may  find  itself  and  express  itself 
we  have  called  the  community  center.  Whether  this 
center  for  the  community  life  shall  be  at  the  church, 
at  the  Grange,  at  the  library,  or  at  the  school,  de- 
pends upon  which  one  of  the  number  first  discovers 
its  opportunity  and  renders  that  service  to  the  rural 
community  which  will  make  of  it  a  center  for  the 
community  life. 

Constructive  rural  service.  The  need  is  for  some 
unifying  rural  institution  which  will  quicken  the  com- 
munity life  and  focus  its  efforts  along  worthy  lines  of 
action.  The  improvement  of  roads  and  roadsides;  the 
abatement  of  eyesores  and  nuisances;  the  carrying- 
through  of  a  community  plan  for  health  and  sanitary 
improvement;  the  formation  of  civic  organizations;  the 


RURAL  LIFE  AND   NEEDS  OF  TO-DAY    127 

improvement  of  schools;  the  development  of  recreation 
centers;  the  holding  of  contests  and  fetes;  inspection 
trips;  the  organization  of  boys'  and  girls'  clubs;  meet- 
ing in  school  and  farmers'  institutes;  the  organization 
of  hospital  associations;  the  holding  of  lectures;  read- 
ing and  extension  courses;  grain-  and  stock-judging 
exhibits;  fruit  and  poultry  shows;  —  these  are  some  of 
the  results  which  follow  a  quickened  rural  community 
life,  and  nearly  all  of  which  may  take  place  at  a  prop- 
erly arranged  rural  community-center. 

The  moral  life  of  country  people  needs  to  be  dealt 
with,  too,  though  by  constructive  service,  and  not 
by  repression  and  prohibition.  The  play  instinct  of 
young  people  needs  to  be  ministered  unto  and  guided. 
Playgrounds,  dramatic  and  literary  activities,  and 
boy-scouts'  and  camp-fire  girls'  movements  should  be 
encouraged.  The  life  of  the  farm-hand,  the  working- 
girl,  and  the  poor  tenant  farmer  ofiPer  a  challenge  to  the 
activity  and  effectiveness  of  the  church.  The  Grange 
should  lead  in  the  matter  of  cooperative  organization 
and  civic  improvement.  The  school  and  the  library 
should  meet  the  needs  of  the  community  for  knowl- 
edge, and  energetically  stimulate  the  intellectual  life. 
The  community  center,  wherever  it  may  be  devel- 
oped, should  serve  as  a  rallying-point  for  all  of  these 
forces  for  the  improvement  of  rural  life. 

The  call  for  rural  service.  The  development  of  a 
new  and  a  better  country  life  is  largely  a  question  of 
education  and  guidance.  New  knowledge,  new  ideals, 


128  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

wise  counsel  and  advice,  new  stimuli,  and  guidance 
and  direction  are  needed.  The  call  for  young  men  and 
women  of  personality,  energy,  capacity,  convictions, 
and  aspirations,  who  like  the  open  country  and  will 
live  there  and  work  for  agricultural  and  community 
advancement,  is  a  call  which  is  long  and  loud.  To 
ministers,  educated  farmers,  physicians,  editors,  libra- 
rians, and  teachers,  the  call  comes  with  especial  clear- 
ness and  force.  Nothing  less  than  the  creation  of  a 
new  rural  life,  the  creation  of  new  standards  and 
values  with  reference  to  life  on  the  farm,  and  the  crea- 
tion of  new  rural  institutions  which  will  better  minis- 
ter to  the  needs  of  rural  people,  is  what  is  aimed  to  be 
accomplished. 

Meaning  of  the  country-life  movement.  To 
awaken  a  new  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  sky  and 
field  and  wood;  to  create  new  standards  for  the  ap- 
preciation of  rural  life  and  freedom;  to  reveal  farming 
as  the  application  of  the  subtlest  laws  of  nature,  as 
revealed  by  science;  to  ameliorate  the  harsh  condi- 
tions, the  loneliness,  and  the  isolation  of  rural  life;  to 
make  it  a  remunerative  undertaking;  to  conserve  the 
home  and  to  develop  a  happy,  intelligent,  and  re- 
sourceful people;  to  secure  social,  as  well  as  economic, 
cooperation;  to  improve  the  educational  and  spiritual 
advantages  provided  for  country  people  and  country 
children;  and,  withal,  to  make  life  in  the  small  village 
and  in  the  open  country  more  productive  of  health, 
pleasure,  and  profit,  —  these  are  some  of  the  important 


RURAL   LIFE   AND   NEEDS   OF  TO-DAY     129 

objects  of  the  rural-life  movement  of  to-day.  All 
fundamental  improvement  of  rural-life  conditions, 
while  it  may  be  aided  by  wise  legislation  and  stimu- 
lated into  activity  by  others,  must,  after  all,  be  carried 
through  by  the  rural  people  themselves.  To  guide  and 
to  aid  them  in  their  efforts  ought  to  be  the  great  mis- 
sion of  the  church,  the  library,  and  the  school,  and  of 
these  the  school  easily  stands  first,  if  it  can  rise  to  meet 
the  opportunities  which  confront  it. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Indicate  means  whereby  the  rural  school  may  teach  and  incul- 
cate the  different  items  enumerated  on  page  105. 

2.  In  what  way  is  the  rural  school  burdened  by  traditions? 

3.  Would  the  improvement  of  agriculture  by  national  and  state 
agencies  be  desirable,  if  no  human  interests  were  involved? 

4.  Would  the  improvement  of  the  human  side  of  rural  life  by  the 
state  and  the  nation  be  a  legitimate  undertaking,  if  no  agri- 
cultural interests  were  involved? 

6.  Show  how  an  organized  plan  for  nursing,  helping  the  poor  and 
sick,  and  aiding  mothers  in  the  care  of  children,  would  greatly 
improve  rural-life  conditions. 

6.  Is  it  the  poor  or  the  high-priced  lands  of  your  community  which 
have  come  under  tenancy? 

7.  How  far  is  strong  personality  retained  in  your  community  ? 
In  what  direction,  if  any,  is  the  change  taking  place? 

8.  What  is  the  character  of  the  villages  of  your  county  in  the 
matter  of  personality? 

9.  Why  must  the  chief  work  in  improving  rural  society  be  accom- 
plished by  appealing  to  country  people  themselves? 

10.  How  can  the  improvement  of  rural  social  life  for  the  young  be 
made  to  contribute  to  the  improvement  of  adult  rural  society? 

11.  What  percentage  of  the  farmhouses  of  the  community  you 
know  best  would  you  say  have  good  working  kitchens? 

12.  What  future  effect  on  home  and  kitchen  designing  and  equip- 
ment do  you  think  would  be  the  result  of  introducing  instruc- 
tion in  domestic  science,  using  good  equipment,  in  all  of  the 
rural  schools? 


130  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

13.  Of  what  do  your  community  centers  consist,  and  what  is  the 
nature  of  their  influence? 

14.  What  is  the  character  of  the  villages  in  your  county,  in  the 
matter  of  helpfulness  to  rural  life? 

15.  Have  you  known  of  any  unions  of  churches? 

16.  Explain  why  the  nature  of  the  farmer's  vocation  emphasizes 
individuality  and  independence,  and  makes  it  diflScult  to 
interest  farmers  in  cooperative  undertakings. 

17.  To  what  extent  does  the  school  occupy  the  place  of  a  center 
for  the  community  life? 

18.  To  what  extent  is  the  play  instinct,  the  literary  instinct,  the 
domestic  instinct,  and  the  social  instinct  ministered  unto  by  the 
rural  community  life  in  your  community? 

19.  How  much  of  the  program  for  constructive  rural  service,  given 
on  pages  126-127,  is  carried  out  in  your  community?  By  whom, 
and  with  what  degree  of  effectiveness? 

20.  How  far  does  the  school  reveal  to  the  young  people  in  it  the 
deeper  meanings  of  rural  life,  as  indicated  on  page  128? 

21.  Explain  what  is  meant  by  the  statement  that  "  federation  and 
cooperation  embody  the  dominant  spirit  of  the  age  we  are 
entering?  " 

22.  Why  is  only  a  giving  church  a  growing  church?  Would  the 
same  principle  apply  to  school  work? 

23.  What  limitation  does  the  Grange  possess  as  a  community  cen- 
ter, which  does  not  attach  to  the  school  or  the  library?        ^m 

24.  What  is  meant  (page  126)  by  the  statement  that  the  rural-hre 
problem  calls  for  a  reconstruction  and  a  reorganization  of  rural 
social  institutions? 

25.  How  many  of  the  community  efforts  enumerated  on  pages  126- 
127  take  place  in  your  rural  community?  Have  you  known 
communities  where  such  took  place? 

26.  Why  does  the  call  for  constructive  rural  service  come  to  teach- 
ers with  especial  clearness  and  force? 

27.  W'ould  the  "  meaning  of  the  country-life  movement,"  as  stated 
on  page  128,  form  a  good  creed  for  country-workers? 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOME  WORTHY  EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL  SERVICE 

This  chapter  will  be  merely  descriptive  and  illustra- 
tive, its  purpose  being  to  give  concreteness  to  the  pre- 
ceding chapters  by  describing  some  worthy  efforts  at 
rural  service  which  have  been  carried  out  in  different 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Obviously  no  attempt  can 
be  made  to  describe  here  more  than  a  very  few  typi- 
cal examples  of  conspicuous  rural  service,  and  it  is  not 
even  claimed  that  the  ones  cited  are  the  best  of  their 
kind.  They  are  typical,  however,  and  serve  to  illus- 
trate what  was  meant  in  the  discussion  of  the  preced- 
ing chapter. 

We  shall  classify  these  various  efforts  under  the 
headings  of  (l)  Church  Organizations;  (2)  Young 
People's  Organizations;  (3)  Library  Organizations; 
(4)  Farmers'  Organizations;  (5)  Agricultural  Improve- 
ment Organizations;  and  (6)  Community-Center  Or- 
ganizations. These  six  represent  the  main  forms  of 
rural  social  service,  though  others,  of  more  limited 
scope,  might  be  added  if  space  would  permit.  It  is 
hoped,  however,  that  the  few  examples  here  described 
may  serve  to  illustrate  the  possibilities  and  the  form  of 
such  rural  community  service,  and  to  show  how  centers 
for  the  rural  community  life  may  be  created. 


132 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


I.    CHURCH    ORGANIZATIONS 

I.  A  rural  church.  A  number  of  notable  examples 
of  rural-church  community-service  h&,ve  been  de- 
scribed in  print.  One  near  Plainfield,  in  Du  Page 
County,  Illinois,  is  typical.^  Under  the  leadership  of 
a  young  minister  of  insight  and  capacity,  a  poorly 
supported  country  church  of  the  old  type  was,  in  ten 
years,   transformed  into  a  strong  rural-community 

institution;  a  new  com- 
munity-center type  of 
church  building  erected; 
and  the  church  was  grad- 
ually transformed  into 
a  social  center  for  the 
country  people  for  miles 
around. 

The  original  church, 
established  in  1833,  was 
located  in  the  country,  six  miles  from  a  railroad,  and 
in  a  rich  farming  area  some  thirty -five  miles  west  of 
Chicago.  The  farms  surrounding  it  were  very  rich, 
the  farm  homes  of  the  best,  and  the  country  very 
prosperous.  The  church,  however,  had  fallen  into 
decay.  The  meeting-house,  built  fifty  years  before, 
was  old,  the  fences  had  fallen  down,  and  the  horse- 
sheds  were  an  eyesore.  No  one  had  united  with  the 
church  for  five  years;  there  were  few  services;  and  a 

1   "  Ten  Years  in  a  Country  Church,"  by  Matthew  B.  McNutt; 
in  World's  Work,  December,  1910  (vol.  xxi). 


Fia.  33.    THE  ORIGINAL  CHURCH 


SOME   EXAMPLES  OF  RURAX   SERVICE     133 

dancing  club  in  the  neighborhood  attracted  the  young 
people  much  more. 

The  new  minister  was  fresh  from  a  theological 
school,  and  had  no  training  whatever  for  rural  service. 
The  people,  too,  were  full  of  preconceived  notions  as 
to  the  church  service  and  country  life,  which  for  a 
time  prevented  progress.  The  church  awakened  but 
little  community  interest;  many  had  grown  indifferent 
as  to  its  services;  others  had  grown  indifferent  as  to  its 
fate.  It  was  soon  evident  that  the  only  hope  for  prog- 
ress lay  in  working  with  the  young;  but  how  to  interest 
them  in  the  work  of  the  church  was  not  so  easily  seen. 

The  first  effort  to  interest  the  young  people  was  by 
the  organization  of  an  old-fashioned  singing-school,  in 
which  the  young  people  were  taught  to  read  music  and 
to  sing.  Quartets  were  formed,  musical  instruments 
were  secured,  and  finally  an  orchestra  was  organized. 
Choruses  were  also  formed,  and  special  choral  services 
rendered.  This  led  to  a  great  personal  and  home  de- 
velopment of  music  in  the  community.  Public  speak- 
ing was  also  made  a  feature,  and  societies  for  debating 
and  literary  work  were  organized.  Extemporaneous 
speaking  on  public  questions  soon  became  a  feature, 
and  debates  with  town  teams  were  held.  Plays  were 
given  at  the  church,  and  home-talent  entertainments 
organized.  These  have  proved  very  popular  with  the 
farmers  and  their  families,  and  have  done  much  to  edu- 
cate the  people  away  from  the  cheap  amusements  of 
the  neighboring  towns  and  cities. 


134  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION. 

Much  was  also  made  of  athletics.  A  number  of 
teams  —  baseball,  basketball,  tennis,  etc.  —  were 
organized,  and  competitive  matches  arranged.  Moot- 
courts,  spelling-bees,  story-telling  clubs,  reading- 
circles,  and  sewing-clubs  were  also  formed.  A  printing- 
press  was  secured,  and  all  of  the  church  printing  was 
soon  done  on  it  by  the  boys.  Celebrations  and  public 
holidays  were  made  patriotic  and  inspiring.  The  great- 
est day  of  the  year  is  the  "Annual  Meeting"  day,  held 
each  year  on  the  third  Saturday  in  March.  This  has 
been  made  into  a  great  event.  An  all-day  meeting  is 
held;  a  banquet  is  served  at  noon;  addresses  are  made; 
good  music  is  rendered;  letters  from  absent  members 
are  read,  etc.  The  day  is,  in  a  way,  a  round-up  of  the 
year's  work  of  the  community.  Sociability  and  fellow- 
ship are  emphasized,  and  an  effort  is  made  to  develop 
a  new  social  feeling  in  the  community. 

Such  means  as  these  were  employed  to  awaken  the 
community  interest  and  to  create  a  community  feeling. 
To  awaken  the  interest  of  both  old  and  young  and  to 
develop  a  community  life  that  should  be  strong  and 
vigorous  were  the  first  essentials.  These  ends  had  to 
be  accomplished  through  social  efforts  and  service, 
instead  of  through  religious  services  and  zeal.  A  Bible 
class  of  young  men  was  formed,  with  social  meet- 
ings once  a  month,  and  Bible-study  work  on  Sunday 
mornings.  This  class  in  time  reached  a  membership 
of  fifty  rural  young  men,  who  not  only  held  social 
meetings  of  much  personal  value  and  studied  the 


SOME   EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL   SERVICE    135 


Bible  on  Sundays,  but  in  time  became  the  pastor's 
chief  assistants  in  religious  and  community  service.  A 
young  women's  sewing-  and  reading-circle  rendered  a 
somewhat  analogous  service. 

As  a  result  of  ten  years  of  work  along  such  lines,  the 
rural  community  has  been  almost  completely  trans- 
formed. In  the  place  of  the  old-type  one-room  church, 
a  new  institutional  church  has  been  erected.  This 
contains  an  auditorium,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  five 
hundred  ;  a  sepa- 
rate Sunday-school 
■wing,  containing  a 
number  of  class- 
rooms; a  pastor's 
study;  a  choir- 
room;  a  mothers' 
room ;  cloak-rooms ; 

and  a  vestibule,  —  all  on  the  first  floor.  In  the  base- 
ment are  a  large  dining-room,  a  kitchen,  toilets,  and 
a  furnace-room.  The  building  has  its  own  lighting, 
heating,  and  water  plants,  and  is  well  equipped  with 
supplies  and  apparatus  for  entertainment  and  instruc- 
tion. The  cost  of  the  new  institutional  church  was 
$10,000;  all  of  this  sum  was  subscribed  before  build- 
ing was  begun;  and  the  subscription  lists  included 
Catholics,  German  Lutherans,  other  Protestants,  and 
men  of  no  church,  as  well  as  members  of  the  particular 
Protestant  denomination.  No  collection  for  building 
or  furnishings  was  needed  at  the  time  of  its  dedication. 


Fia.  34.  THE  NEW  INSTITUTIONAL  CHURCH 


136  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  people,  as  a  result  of  these  many  social  efforts, 
have  not  grown  less  reverent  or  less  religious.  In  ten 
years  the  church  membership,  which  had  previously 
been  declining,  increased  from  80  to  163,  and  the  Sun- 
day-school membership  from  ICK)  to  300.  The  manse 
connected  with  the  church  was  also  remodeled,  to 
make  it  a  more  comfortable  home  for  the  pastor;  the 
pastor's  salary  was  very  materially  increased;  and 
$5270  was  contributed  to  benevolences  of  various 
kinds  during  the  decade  as  against  $6407  during  the 
preceding  fifty  years. 

The  effect  on  the  people  has  been  marked.  Whole 
families,  that  formerly  had  no  interest  in  the  church 
or  in  the  uplift  of  the  community,  have  since  become 
active  church  members.  The  community  conception 
of  life  itself  has  materially  widened.  The  people  are 
buying  books,  pictures,  and  musical  instruments; 
they  are  installing  modern  conveniences  and  comforts 
in  their  homes;  they  are  friendlier,  and  more  generous 
than  before;  a  new  desire  for  education  has  developed 
among  the  young;  and  a  new  community  spirit  and 
interest  has  been  awakened.  The  people  are  orderly, 
peace-loving,  and  enterprising;  and  the  young  people 
clean,  sturdy,  and  ambitious.  Land  values  are  rising, 
farms  are  in  greatest  demand,  the  farm-tenant  tend- 
ency has  been  checked,  and  people  who  live  outside 
this  rural  community  now  express  the  wish  that  they 
lived  nearer  to  this  church.  In  competition  with 
social  clubs,  Grange,  school,  and  town,  this  church, 


SOME  EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL  SERVICE    137 

with  a  program  of  social  betterment  and  service,  has 
been  successful  in  winning  and  holding  the  affections 
of  these  rural  people.  It  has  become  distinctively  the 
community  center  for  both  old  and  young  in  this 
rural  agricultural  community,  and  offers  a  worthy  ex- 
ample of  church  effort  for  community  betterment  and 
community  service. 

2.  A  village  church.  Another  example  of  church 
service  will  be  described,  this  one  from  a  community 
where  all  phases  of  the  rural  life  were  decadent.^  The 
church,  agriculture,  religion  and  morals,  local  govern- 
ment, the  economic  welfare,  the  physical  man,  the 
social  and  recreative  life,  and  the  community  hfe  it- 
self were  all  backward  and  stagnant.  The  pastor, 
having  studied  sociology  as  well  as  theology,  sought 
out  such  a  community,  instead  of  its  seeking  him.  His 
object  in  going  to  such  a  place  had  to  be  kept  secret, 
as  otherwise  he  would  have  met  with  opposition  too 
strong  to  be  overcome.  His  story  is  also  the  story  of 
ten  years  of  effort. 

He  began  to  strengthen  the  church  and  the  Sunday 
school  by  building  up  the  social  hfe  of  the  community, 
which  as  a  whole  received  much  attention.  The  good 
economic,  social,  and  religious  results  of  good  roads 
were  pointed  out.  Better  schools,  township  supervi- 
sion, and  a  township  high  school  were  also  urged  and 

*  "The  Rural  Pastor  a  Community  Builder,"  by  Charles  O. 
Bemies,  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  McClellandstown, 
Pennsylvania.  In  Rural  Manhood,  February,  1913  (vol.  iv,  no.  2). 


138  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

later  secured,  and  still  later  an  agricultural  course  was 
introduced  into  the  high  school.  Scientific  agriculture 
was  continually  preached  in  the  pulpit  and  without, 
and,  in  order  to  demonstrate  improved  methods,  the 
minister  finally  became  advisory  manager  of  a  330- 
acre  farm  in  the  community.  This  was  organized  into 
departments,  and  scientific  methods  were  introduced 
and  their  advantages  demonstrated.  Some  improve- 
ment in  civic  righteousness  has  also  been  made,  though 
the  presence  of  coal  and  coke  towns  in  the  township 
has  made  the  progress  in  this  particular  less  noticeable 
than  in  other  directions. 

After  much  eflFort  a  new  institutional  church  build- 
ing was  also  secured  here.  It  has  a  basement,  over 
fourteen  feet  high  in  the  clear,  divided  into  a  large 
gymnasium,  bath-  and  locker-rooms,  dressing-rooms, 
and  a  kitchen.  Here  games,  socials,  festivals,  and 
banquets  are  held.  The  main  floor  has  a  large  audi- 
torium, with  a  platform  with  rooms  on  each  side,  and 
adaptable  for  use  as  a  stage  for  amateur  plays,  enter- 
tainments, and  concerts.  The  room  is  also  used  for 
meetings  of  the  farmers'  institutes,  mining  institutes, 
conferences  for  foreigners,  Sunday-school  conferences, 
high-school  graduations,  corn  shows,  and  special  oc- 
casion programs,  as  well  as  for  the  regular  religious 
services.  This  building  has  done  more  than  any  one 
thing,  except  the  work  of  the  pastor  himself,  to  make 
of  this  church  an  important  community  center,  and 
during  the  ten  years  of  social  and  religious  effort  more 


SOME  EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL  SERVICE     139 

members  have  been  added  to  the  church  than  during 
the  preceding  sixty-three  years  of  its  history.  It  is 
another  illustration  of  the  statement  that  only  a  serv- 
ing church  is  a  growing  church. 

3.  A  rural  community-center  church  and  Sunday 
school.  A  number  of  these  have  been  developed,  with- 
in recent  years,  at  different  places  in  the  United  States. 
As  one  of  the  best  of  these  is  described  in  the  final 
chapter  of  Part  I  of  this  book,  it  is  merely  mentioned 
here  and  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  chapter  cited 
for  further  details. 

4.  District  Nursing.  Another  form  of  church  service, 
not  included  in  either  of  the  above,  and  yet  one  which 
might  well  be  included  in  the  work  of  an  active  living 
church,  is  the  provision  of  a  community  nurse,  and  the 
enlistment  of  the  community  in  an  effort  to  improve 
sanitary  conditions  and  to  care  better  for  the  babies 
and  the  sick.  A  community  nurse,  acting  in  connec- 
tion with  a  community-center  church,  or  a  community- 
center  house,  would  be  of  much  service  in  advancing 
the  community  welfare.  The  largest  usefulness  for  the 
rural  nurse,  though,  probably  lies  in  connection  with 
the  reorganized  rural  school. 

II.    ORGANIZATIONS   FOR   YOUNG    PEOPLE 

Three  organizations  of  this  kind  have  recently  begun 
active  work,  and  each  is  worthy  of  mention. 

I.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  County- 
Work  Division.  This  division  was  first  founded  in  1 889, 


140  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

but  it  is  only  recently  that  any  marked  d«^velopment  of 
the  work  has  been  efifected.  Within  the  past  ten  years 
a  strong  effort  to  extend  the  work  has  been  made,  with 
a  view  to  organizing,  ultimately,  such  counties  as  are 
rural  and  organizable  in  each  of  the  states.  Up  to  the 
close  of  1921,  county  work  was  in  successful  operation 
in  195  counties  in  34  states  in  the  United  States  and 
in  11  counties  in  Canada,  242  secretaries  were  giv- 
ing their  time  to  the  work,  1050  local  organizations 
within  the  counties  were  at  work,  1586  volunteer  lead- 
ers were  directing  community  activities,  over  30,000 
young  men  and  boys  were  enlisted  in  the  work  of  the 
organization,  and  2514  business  men  were  giving  care- 
ful administrative  oversight  to  the  work  of  the  county 
associations. 

This  organization  has  in  the  past  been  essentially  a 
city  organization,  but  recognizing  the  fact  that  more 
than  one  half  of  the  young  men  and  boys  in  America 
live  in  small  towns  and  in  rural  districts,  the  Asso- 
ciation has  recently  turned  its  attention  to  this  field 
as  well.  Recognizing  that,  with  the  decline  in  influence 
of  the  church  and  the  great  change  in  rural-life  con- 
ditions, the  youth  of  such  communities  stand  in  par- 
ticular need  of  the  character-building  services  of  such 
an  organization,  this  Association  has  begun  the  devel- 
opment of  county  work  in  an  effort  to  improve  rural 
and  village  manhood.  Instead  of  the  school  district  or 
the  township,  as  is  so  common  in  school  affairs,  the 
county  is  made  the  unit  of  organization  and  adminis- 


SOME   EXAMPLES   OF  RURAL   SERVICE     141 


tration.  The  county  is  subdivided,  as  may  seem  desir- 
able, and  with  towns  and  rural  communities  as  units. 


The    County    Committee 
an  incorporated  body 

INTERNATIONAL  and  STATE  COUNTY 

WORK   DEPARTMENTS 

COUNTY  SECRETARY 

EMPLOYED    BY    COUNTY    COMMITTEE 

TOWN   COMMITTEE 

OF    LOCAL.ASSOCIATION 

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Fig.  36.    Y.M.C.A.  COUNTY  ORGANIZATION 

A  county  secretary  is  in  charge  of  the  work  of  each 
county,  thus  providing  a  trained  specialist  in  all-round 


142  RURAL  LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

work  for  the  young  men  and  boys,  and  a  county-wide 
program  of  work  is  laid  out.  The  chart  on  page  141 
shows  both  the  plan  of  organization  and  the  scope  of 
the  county-wide  activities. 

Unlike  the  city  organizations,  little  or  no  equip- 
ment is  needed  or  desired.  Membership  is  based  upon 
what  men  give  in  service,  rather  than  upon  what  they 
get  in  privileges.  The  chief  work  of  the  county  secre- 
tary is  the  discovery,  enlistment,  training,  and  direc- 
tion of  the  volunteer  leaders  for  the  social,  educational, 
physical,  and  religious  work  of  the  Association.  The 
work  in  the  different  counties  naturally  varies  with 
the  needs.  In  general,  the  organization  work  includes 
athletic  meets,  summer  camps,  recreative  and  com- 
petitive games,  debates,  lecture  courses,  educational 
tours,  exhibits  and  contests,  receptions,  suppers,  fa- 
ther and  son  banquets,  and  social  visitation,  as  well 
as  Bible-study,  the  chief  purpose  of  it  all  being  to  bring 
young  men  and  boys  of  different  communities  to- 
gether in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  their  character,  in- 
crease their  social  power,  and  enlarge  their  mental 
horizon.  This  means  not  only  physical  exercise,  but 
higher  ideals  for  the  development  and  care  of  the  body. 
It  also  means  mental  growth,  stimulated  by  club  and 
group  work;  evening  classes;  plans  for  enriching  rural 
life  where  it  is  poorest;  ministering  to  the  social  hun- 
ger of  the  country  boy  with  wholesome  recreation  and 
social  contact;  and  religious  work  of  a  sensible  and 
manly  type.    The  Association  also  cooperates  with 


144  RURAL   LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

churches,  Sunday  schools,  young-people's  societies. 
Granges,  fraternal  organizations,  and  schools,  with  a 
view  to  making  the  work  of  all  such  organizations 
more  effective.  Naturally  the  needs  of  boy  life  in  rural 
districts  and  small  towns  receive  the  chief  attention 
of  the  Association. 

Though  naturally  an  ally  of  the  church,  and  work- 
ing for  the  building-up  of  rural  manhood  and  the  moral 
life  of  rural  communities,  the  movement  itself  is  es- 
sentially a  lay  movement,  financed  by  business  men. 
Half  of  the  members  enrolled  in  its  Bible-study  classes 
are  not  church  members,  but  one  out  of  ten  of  such 
students  is  won  each  year  to  a  Christian  life,  and 
largely  as  the  result  of  the  personal  touch  of  strong 
men.  It  is  also  non-denominational  and  inter-denomi- 
national, thus  serving  as  an  ally  of  all  the  churches, 
and  bringing  rival,  competing,  and  jealous  churches 
together  for  constructive  work.  The  county  secretary 
is  usually  a  college  graduate,  with  some  special  train- 
ing for  the  work,  and  one  who  knows  the  country, 
believes  in  the  country,  and  has  faith  in  the  future  of 
rural  life. 

The  movement,  as  yet,  is  only  in  its  beginnings,  and 
in  time  is  certain  to  exert  a  tremendous  influence  for 
good  with  the  youth  of  rural  and  village  communities. 
Probably  no  other  organization  gives  promise  of  such 
large  results  in  the  elimination  of  vulgarity,  profanity, 
licentiousness  and  misdirected  living,  and  in  the  con- 
servation of  rural  manhood. 


SOME   EXAMPLES   OF  RURAL   SERVICE     145 

2.  The  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
County-Work  Division.  This  is  an  even  more  recent 
development  of  this  organization,  and  as  yet  has 
scarcely  begun  to  serve.  It  is  patterned  after  some- 
what the  same  lines  as  the  Y.M.C.A.  county  work, 
and  its  aim  is  to  do  for  the  young  women  and  girls  in 
rural  communities  and  villages  a  service  similar  to 
that  so  well  begun  for  the  young  men  and  boys.  This 
organization  could  add  district  nursing  to  its  field  of 
usefulness  with  advantage. 

3.  Rural  Boy-Scouts  and  Camp-Fire  Girls.  Provi- 
sion for  "the  lone  scout"  is  made  in  the  Boy  Scouts 
organization,  and  the  idea  is  capable  of  development 
by  teachers  in  rural  schools,  and  others  interested  in 
rural  welfare.  A  similar  idea  could  be  carried  out  by 
organizing  rural  girls,  under  the  Camp-Fire  Girls'  or 
Girl  Scouts'  plan  of  organization.  Both  of  these  or- 
ganizations are  of  recent  origin,  and  both  have  found 
such  a  field  for  work  in  the  towns  and  smaller  cities 
that  as  yet  they  have  had  little  opportunity  to  render 
any  distinctively  rural  service.  Under  good  county 
organization,  though,  both  are  capable  of  large  rural 
usefulness  and  service. 

4.  Boys'  and  girls'  agricultural  clubs.  Thousands  of 
boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  of  different  kinds,  have  been 
organized  in  the  rural  communities  of  the  different 
states.  There  have  been  few  developments  within  re- 
cent years  of  greater  educational  significance  for  rural- 
life  improvement  than  these  clubs.    Originally  these 


146  RUKAL  LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

clubs  were  usually  begun  as  a  result  of  some  competi- 
tive contest,  and  clubs  of  various  kinds  were  formed, — 
clufes  for  corn-growing,  cotton-growing,  potato-grow- 
ing, fruit-growing,  live-stock  study,  bird-study,  home 
culture,  sewing-clubs,  cooking-clubs,  and  camera-clubs 
are  the  main  kinds  which  have  been  formed.  Prizes 
were  then  offered  for  successful  competition, — schools, 
churches.  Granges,  commercial  organizations,  rural 
Y.M.C.A.'s,  and  citizens  assisting  and  providing  the 
funds.  Within  the  past  decade  the  work  has  been  al- 
most entirely  taken  over,  as  far  as  general  direction 
is  concerned,  by  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture.  During  the  World  War  these  clubs  ren- 
dered very  valuable  national  service.  The  purpose  has 
been  to  enlist  and  direct  the  energies  of  rural  boys  and 
girls  into  useful  work;  to  train  them  in  dealing  with 
problems  of  production  and  conservation  of  food,  the 
prevention  of  disease,  the  preservation  of  health, 
proper  marketing  and  crop  accounting,  and  thrift  and 
saving.  In  the  Southern  States  negro  boys  and  girls 
have  been  organized  as  well  as  whites.  More  than  a 
million  boys  and  girls  are  now  enrolled  in  gardening, 
drying,  canning,  pig-raising,  poultry-raising,  corn, 
sugar-beet,  dairy,  and  marketing  clubs,  with  large  re- 
turns in  production,  cooperation,  thrift,  and  health. 

The  good  results  of  such  club  and  competitive  work 
are  already  apparent.  The  boys  and  girls  have  been 
trained  to  observe  more  closely;  to  recognize  good 
and  bad  qualities  in  their  products;  they  have  met  and 


SOME  EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL  SERVICE     147 

learned  to  solve  problems;  they  have  learned  some 
thing  as  to  the  cost  of  production  and  the  keeping  of 
simple  accounts;  they  have  learned  to  read  agricultural 
literature  bearing  on  their  work;  and  personal  ini- 
tiative has  been  strongly  developed.  The  importance 
of  organized  effort,  cooperation,  and  compromise  — 
matters  of  much  importance  in  rural  districts  — 
have  been  developed.  The  influence  on  the  parents, 
the  homes,  and  on  agriculture  on  the  home  farms  has 
been  most  excellent.  Agricultural  and  home-making 
literature  has  been  popularized;  new  facts  and  proc- 
esses have  been  introduced;  and  parents  and  children 
have  found  growing  contests  and  farmers'  insti- 
tutes interesting  and  profitable.  In  some  of  the  more 
important  agricultural  states,  both  in  the  North  and 
in  the  South,  the  prizes  offered  for  successful  com- 
petition have  included  trips  to  the  state  agricultural 
college,  and  a  short  course  of  instruction  there. 

The  schools  have  found  these  clubs  of  great  value, 
not  only  in  developing  agricultural  and  domestic- 
science  instruction,  but  in  awakening  both  school 
and  community  interest  as  well.  The  exhibits  have 
often  proved  among  the  most  attractive  of  all  exhibits 
at  the  local  and  state  fairs,  and  have  done  much  to 
make  the  people  feel  that  the  schools  are  rendering  a 
useful  service. 

III.    THE  RURAL  LIBRARY 

Another  great  service  for  rural  and  village  life,  which 


148  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

has  been  begun  almost  entirely  within  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  and  largely  within  the  past  ten  years,  is 
the  introduction  of  traveling  and  branch  libraries  for 
the  benefit  of  rural  and  village  people.  This  move- 
ment has  developed  so  rapidly  within  the  past  ten 
years  that,  in  the  near  future,  we  may  expect  to  see 
library  facilities  carried  to  every  rural  home.  The 
city  library,  with  its  branch  libraries  and  stations,  has 
for  some  time  carried  library  facilities  to  all  of  the 
people  of  the  city.  It  is  now  proposed  to  render  the 
same  service  to  rural  and  village  communities,  using 
the  county  generally  as  a  unit,  and  with  branches  and 
sub-stations  in  the  village  schoolhouses,  stores,  and 
farm  homes. 

The  movement  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the 
appropriation  made  by  the  New  York  Legislature,  in 
1892,  under  which  the  New  York  State  Library  began 
to  send  out  traveling  libraries  to  organizations  or  as- 
sociations of  citizens  in  the  villages  and  rural  districts 
of  the  state.  A  box  of  fifty  or  sixty  books  was  sent, 
and  this  could  be  retained  for  six  months.  This  plan 
was  gradually  followed  by  other  states,  and  at  the  end 
of  fifteen  years  (1907)  twenty-two  states  had  adopted 
the  idea,  and  had  a  total  of  over  five  thousand  boxes 
in  circulation.  After  about  1905,  and  especially  since 
1909,  state  after  state  has  adopted  the  library-exten- 
sion idea,  and  in  a  few  years  it  may  be  expected  that 
every  state  in  the  Union  will  have  made  some  pro- 
vision for  carrying  library  facilities  to  the  people  of  the 


AN  AUTOMOBILE  THAT  HAS  TAUGHT  A  COUNTY  TO  READ 

In  the  first  six  months  of  1912,  this  motor  truck  circulated  23,000  books 
in  Washington  County,  Maryland,  of  which  more  than  two  thousand  were 
delivered  to  the  homes  of  remote  families  in  the  rural  districts. 


ONE   OP   THE   LOCAL   MEETINGS   FOR   COMMUNITY   IMPROVEMENT 
This  is  one  of  the  local  community  meetings  described  on  page  158. 


SOME   EXAMPLES  OF   RURAL  SERVICE     149 


rural  districts.  Instead  of  waiting  for  the  people  to 
apply  for  the  libraries,  state  organizers  have  been  sent 
among  the  people 

to  explain  to  them  fie^fj'l'iv 

the  advantages, 
select  deposit  sta- 
tions, and  help 
them  arrange  for 
the  first  box  of 
books.  The  ex- 
penses of  trans- 
portation have 
usually  been  paid 
by  the  state,  from 
legislative  appro- 
priations for  the 
purpose. 

The  state  traveling  library,  however,  may  be  re- 
garded as  only  a  beginning,  and  as  an  initiatory  step 
leading  to  the  establishment  of  county  (or  town- 
ship) libraries.  The  county  is  the  natural  unit,  with 
township  libraries  as  branches.  The  state  then  deals 
only  with  the  county  libraries.  These  then  establish 
branches  throughout  the  county,  as  needed,  using 
schools,  stores,  post-offices,  and  homes  as  branches  and 
depositories.  The  existing  libraries,  including  school 
libraries,  are  frequently  incorporated  into  the  county 
library  plan,  and  the  books  are  indexed  and  catalogued 
according  to  a  uniform  county  system.    Every  one  in 


Fia.37.    A  TRAVELING  LIBRARY  IN  A 
FARMHOUSE 


150  RURAL   LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

the  county,  including  children,  may  then  become  bor- 
rowers from  the  county  or  a  branch  library,  and  boxes 
of  books,  or  single  books  to  meet  individual  needs,  are 
sent  out  as  called  for.  Pictures  are  included  by  some 
states,  while  a  few,  notably  New  York,  supply  sets  of 
lantern  slides  for  lectures.  Moving-picture  reels  are 
also  beginning  to  be  loaned  to  communities  by  a  few 
states,  and  also  by  a  few  large  corporations.  The  ul- 
timate end  in  view  is  that  any  citizen  of  the  state 
may  be  able  to  borrow,  at  some  central  place  near  his 
home,  books  to  meet  his  needs.  The  establishment  of  a 
low  rate  for  books  sent  by  parcels  post  has  greatly 
aided  the  movement. 

I  The  plate  opposite  page  149  shows  how  the  libra- 
rian of  Washington  County,  Maryland,  not  content  to 
wait  for  the  people  to  come  after  the  books,  has  taken 
the  books  and  gone  to  the  people.  This  library  was 
one  of  the  first  in  the  United  States  to  begin  extension 
work  within  the  county,  having  opened  twenty-three 
branches  in  1901 .  By  1903  there  were  fifty-five  branches 
and  two  village  libraries  in  cooperation.  In  1905  a 
horse  and  wagon  were  purchased,  in  order  to  reach  the 
homes,  and  when  this  proved  too  slow  it  was  discarded 
for  the  automobile  shown  in  the  picture.  This  has  since 
rendered  valuable  rural  service. 

IV.    FARMERS*    ORGANIZATIONS 

The  Grange.    The  largest  and  most  important  of 
the  distinctively  farmers'  organizations  is  the  Grange, 


SOME  EXAMPLES   OF   RURAL  SERVICE     151 

the  official  title  of  which  is  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry. 
The  members  are  called  Patrons;  the  local  organiza- 
tions, Granges.  This  association  dates  back  to  1849, 
it  having  been  founded  in  that  year  by  a  Minnesota 
farmer  by  the  name  of  Kelley,  for  the  purpose  of  better 
educating  farmers  for  their  business,  and  for  cultivat- 
ing a  better  spirit  of  brotherhood  between  the  North 
and  the  South.  The  movement  grew,  and,  by  1873, 
■when  the  National  Grange  was  organized,  there  were 
20,000  Granges,  in  28  states,  with  a  membership  of 
three  quarters  of  a  million  persons.  Many  at  first 
entered  the  organization  for  financial  gain  alone.  A 
kindred  organization  was  established  for  political 
agitation,  but  this  soon  died,  and  in  its  downfall  seri- 
ously injured  the  Grange.  During  the  decade  of  agri- 
cultural depression,  following  1880,  the  granges  de- 
clined greatly  in  membership  and  influence,  but,  with 
the  coming  of  the  fourth-period  conditions  in  our  agri- 
cultural development,  the  Grange  has  rapidly  in- 
creased in  both  particulars. 

Local  lodges,  or  Granges,  exist  in  the  agricultural 
townships,  or  communities.  The  area  of  local  jurisdic- 
tion is  about  five  or  six  miles  in  diameter,  and  usually 
corresponds  closely  with  that  of  a  rural  community. 
The  membership  consists  of  both  men  and  women.  In 
addition,  every  boy  and  girl  over  fifteen  years  of  age 
may  attain  full  membership,  while  those  over  fourteen 
may  be  admitted  by  vote.  Only  those  whose  interests 
are  with  agriculture  are  eligible,  though  rural  ministers 


152  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

and  teachers  are  here  included.  Women  are  placed  on 
a  plane  of  equality  with  the  men,  and  every  delegate  to 
the  State  Grange  is  a  double  delegate  —  man  and  wife. 
Women  are  eligible  to  any  office  in  the  order,  and  some 
of  the  most  effective  state  workers  have  been  women. 
Members  must  also  be  persons  of  good  repute.  An  ed- 
ucational program  is  a  part  of  each  regular  meeting  of 
the  Grange.  Many  Granges  have  built  their  own  halls, 
which  are  equipped  with  dining-room  and  kitchen,  as 
well  as  lecture  or  assembly-hall.  Some  also  have  bowl- 
ing alleys,  game  rooms,  and  a  little  store  and  soft-drink 
room,  the  profits  of  which  help  maintain  the  building. 
This  organization  has  accomplished  much  for  the 
improvement  of  agricultural  conditions  and  the  life 
of  rural  people.  The  legislation  it  has  won  has  been 
important.  In  national  legislation,  the  creation  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  the  establishment  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  larger  national 
grants  for  the  agricultural  colleges,  the  establishment 
of  rural  free  mail  delivery,  laws  preventing  the  exten- 
sion of  patents  on  sewing-machines,  and  pure-food 
laws  are  among  the  chief  measures  to  its  credit.  In 
the  different  states  it  has  also  been  influential.  Even 
more  important  than  these  measures  has  been  the 
local  influence  of  the  order.  As  an  organization  it  has 
done  more  than  any  other  agency  to  drive  isolation 
out  of  the  farming  communities,  to  extend  social  op- 
portunities, and  to  further  fellowship  and  cooperation 
among  farmers  and  their  wives.  It  has  stood  for  intel- 


SOME  EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL  SERVICE     153 

ligent  and  intensive  farming,  cooperative  purchasing 
and  selling,  mutual  insurance,  and  the  amelioration  of 
influences  injurious  to  the  farm  and  farm  life.  It  has 
given  a  great  impetus  to  agricultural  education  and 
to  the  study  of  domestic  science,  has  stood  for  better 
schools,  and  has  done  much  to  assist  the  movement 
for  the  consolidation  of  schools.  It  has  also  empha- 
sized the  need  for  scientific  knowledge,  now  being  so 
well  met  by  the  farmers'  institutes.  The  Grange  hall 
has  been  made  an  educational  center,  and  its  debat- 
ing clubs,  lecture  courses,  exhibitions,  and  circulating 
libraries  have  done  much  to  educate  the  farmer. 

The  work  of  the  organization  in  improving  the  ethi- 
cal life  of  rural  communities  has  been  one  of  its  marked 
features.  While  avoiding  all  sectarian  discussions,  it 
has  emphasized  real  religion  and  a  moral  and  religious 
life.  Being  distinctively  a  family  organization,  its  in- 
fluence in  improving  and  conserving  the  home  has 
been  very  large.  The  church  has  not  been  more  influ- 
ential or  helpful  in  conserving  family  life,  and,  with 
the  decline  in  influence  of  the  rural  church,  the  Grange 
has  in  many  places  practically  taken  its  place  as 
the  conserver  and  improver  of  the  moral  life  of  the 
community. 

The  Grange  is  an  important  rural  institution,  and 
has  within  itself  the  possibility  of  great  rural  service. 
Organization,  cooperation,  and  education  are  the  basic 
principles  of  the  order.  It  includes  the  entire  family, 
and  its  chief  work  is  moral  and  educational.  With  the 


154  RURAL  LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

school  and  the  church,  the  Grange  seems  destined  to 
be  one  of  the  great  forces  for  the  moulding  and  improv- 
ing of  rural  life.  By  avoiding  sectarian  and  political 
questions,  which  might  destroy  its  usefulness,  it  is  able 
to  concentrate  the  energies  of  its  members  on  rural 
welfare.  It  is  an  organization  with  which  teachers  and 
school  oflBcers  should  connect  themselves,  and  with 
which  they  should  work  heartily. 

V.     ORGANIZATIONS  FOR  AGRICULTURAL 
IMPROVEMENT 

I.  The  farmers'  institute.  This  is  indirectly  a  prod- 
uct of  the  work  of  the  Grange.  As  the  farmers  of  the 
different  communities  met  together  to  discuss  affairs 
relating  to  their  life  and  work,  it  became  usual  for  them 
to  send  to  the  state  agricultural  college  for  men  to 
come  and  speak  to  them  on  various  agricultural  and 
social  topics.  So  useful  were  such  services  found,  and 
so  frequent  did  the  calls  become,  that  the  state  colleges 
organized  bureaus  for  supplying  speakers  and  manag- 
ing the  meetings,  or  institutes,  as  they  soon  came  to  be 
called.  As  an  outcome  of  this  activity,  the  state  legis- 
latures began  to  make  specific  appropriations  to  the 
agricultural  colleges  to  enable  them  to  secure  addi- 
tional instructors  and  to  organize  and  manage  the  work 
properly.  In  reality  it  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
a  university-extension  movement  in  agriculture,  origi- 
nating with  the  farmers  themselves. 

These  institutes  have  now  developed  into  real  short- 


SOME   EXAMPLES   OF  RURAL   SERVICE     155 

course  schools  for  the  instruction  of  the  farmers,  and 
are  now  a  regular  feature  in  practically  all  of  our  states. 
During  the  last  year  for  which  we  have  records  over 
seven  thousand  such  institutes  were  held,  over  two 
thousand  lecturers  were  sent  out  to  them,  and  approx- 
imately two  million  farmers  were  in  attendance.  Lec- 
tures and  demonstrations  continue  often  for  a  week, 
the  county  farm-adviser  is  prominent  in  them,  and 
the  superintendent  of  farmers'  institutes  from  the 
agricultural  college  and  his  assistants  go  to  the  insti- 
tutes and  give  instruction. 

With  the  passage  of  the  Smith-Lever  Act  by  the 
National  Congress,  in  1914,  commonly  known  as  the 
Cooperative  Agricultural  Extension  Act,  giving  na- 
tional aid  to  the  States  for  the  work,  a  national 
movement  was  begun  for  the  improvement  of  rural- 
life  conditions  by  the  diffusion  among  the  people  of 
useful  and  practical  information  relating  to  agricul- 
ture, home  economics,  and  rural  welfare.  In  conse- 
quence the  institutes  have  recently  come  to  include 
work  in  sanitation,  domestic  science,  home  economics, 
and  social  welfare  as  well  as  the  former  instruction 
in  agriculture  and  business  management,  and  the 
women  have  come  to  find  the  institutes  as  valuable 
as  do  the  men.  An  effort  has  also  been  made  to  bring 
together  in  these  institutes  all  of  the  various  forces 
now  working  for  the  betterment  of  rural  life.  Farm- 
ers' clubs,  the  Grange,  the  church,  the  library,  and 
the  school  are  now  frequently  asked  to  cooperate  in 


156  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

the  county  and  state  institutes,  and  in  many  of  the 
recent  meetings  the  theme  for  the  session  has  been 
how  better  to  unify  the  different  forces  working  for 
the  amehoration  and  improvement  of  rural  hfe.  The 
value  of  these  farmers'  institutes  in  advancing  agri- 
culture and  in  improving  the  life  and  social  welfare 
of  the  farmer  and  his  family  is  not  likely  to  be  overes- 
timated. 

The  good  effects  of  this  work  with  the  farmers  has 
become  so  evident  that  a  few  of  our  agricultural  col- 
leges are  now  organizing  institutes  and  short  courses 
for  rural  ministers,  with  a  view  to  acquainting  the 
ministers  with  agricultural  practices,  advances,  and 
needs,  and  interesting  them  in  the  upbuilding  of  rural 
communities  by  means  of  intelligent  rural  service. 

2.  The  county  farm  expert.  This  is  a  recent  develop- 
ment of  the  work  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  working  in  connection  with  the  States, 
the  state  agricultural  colleges,  and  county  governing 
authorities.  Thirty  such  cooperative  undertakings  in 
a  dozen  different  states  had  been  established  by  the 
close  of  1912,  while  by  1920  county  agents  were  to  be 
found  in  most  counties  in  the  United  States  where 
such  could  be  used  to  advantage.  In  the  fifteen  South- 
ern States  the  organization  had  been  made  particu- 
larly complete,  there  being  a  large  force  of  state  agents 
and  directors,  over  thirteen  hundred  county  agents  and 
approximately  eleven  hundred  home-demonstration 
workers.  In  addition  a  cooperating  county  farm  coun- 


SOME  EXAMPLES  OF  RURAL  SERVICE    157 

cil  had  been  organized  among  the  farmers  of  practically 
every  county.  In  the  thirty-three  Northern  and  West- 
ern States  approximately  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the 
counties  had  been  organized  by  1920,  there  being  about 
fourteen  hundred  county  farm  agents  at  work.  The 
county  farm  advisor  system  has  thus  evolved  into  a 
vast  national  organization  for  agricultural  propaganda 
and  home-life  improvement,  working  with  the  farmers, 
their  wives,  and  their  children. 

In  all  the  southern  counties,  and  in  a  constantly  in- 
creasing number  of  the  northern  and  western  counties, 
the  county  farm  council  or  community  committee 
composed  of  farmers  has  recently  come  to  play  a  very 
important  part  in  furthering  the  work  of  the  county 
agent.  By  organizing  demonstration  projects,  to  be 
carried  through  by  the  farmers  themselves  and  reported 
on  at  the  community  meetings,  the  agents  have  done 
much  to  educate  the  people  in  the  use  of  better  meth' 
ods  and  to  introduce  a  better  understanding  and  needed 
cooperation  among  country  people. 

The  value  of  such  organizations  in  breaking  up  the 
old  rural  isolation,  in  promoting  neighborhood  ac- 
quaintance and  solidarity,  and  in  disseminating  agri- 
cultural and  educational  ideas  will  undoubtedly  be 
very  large,  while  the  monetary  value  to  the  farmers 
of  having  a  disinterested  county  agricultural  adviser, 
ready  to  visit  them  and  to  prescribe,  is  likely  to  be 
under-  ather  than  over-estimated.  Such  cooperative 
efforts  as  this  will  contribute  much  toward  promot- 


158  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

ing  community  and  county  solidarity,  and  in  im- 
proving the  conditions  surrounding  rural  life. 

VI.    COMMUNITY-CENTER    ORGANIZATIONS 

An  early  community-center  beginning.  The  com- 
munity-center movement  began  at  a  number  of  places 
in  the  United  States,  near  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent century,  sometimes  starting  as  a  lecture  course, 
or  a  local  improvement  club,  or  as  meeting  a  social 
want.  One  of  these  earlier  movements,  which  is  some- 
what typical  of  the  evolution,  was  the  one  organized 
in  a  little  agricultural  community  of  about  seven  hun- 
dred people,  the  center  of  which  was  twelve  miles 
from  a  railroad.  It  was  formed  at  a  little  center  called 
Hesperia,  located  in  Oceana  County,  Michigan,  about 
forty  miles  north  and  west  of  Grand  Rapids.  The  re- 
gion consists  of  fertile  farms,  and  a  good  class  of  the 
home-builder  type  of  farmer.  They  are  noted  as  pro- 
gressive, successful,  and  intelligent.  Being  somewhat 
isolated,  they  started  to  develop  their  own  local  com- 
munity institutions  for  local  improvement. 

The  movement  started  there  by  a  transformation  of 
the  teachers'  institute  into  a  cooperative  organization 
of  teachers  and  farmers.  Starting  at  first  with  neigh- 
borhood meetings  and  local  speakers,  it  soon  devel- 
oped into  a  cooperative  association  of  farmers,  home- 
makers,  teachers,  and  pupils,  all  working  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  local  schools  and  the  advancement 
of  the  community  welfare.  To  give  wholesome  enter- 


SOME  EXAMPLES  OF   RURAL   SERVICE     159 

tainments  for  rural  people,  to  create  a  taste  for  good 
books,  to  develop  higher  ideals  of  citizenship,  and  to 
improve  the  rural-school  surroundings  were  also  fea- 
tures of  the  work.  Acting  on  the  principle  that  the 
real  forces  which  socialize  rural  life  must  spring  from 
within  the  community  itself  rather  than  from  without, 
these  people  succeeded  in  developing  a  movement 
which  became  known  all  over  the  United  States.  Its 
purpose  was  not  to  supplant  other  organizations, 
but  rather  to  draw  all  together  in  closer  union  and 
sympathy.  The  "big  meeting,"  held  at  Hesperia  once 
each  year,  became  a  great  event,  and  to  this  some  of 
the  best  speakers  in  the  United  States  have  been 
drawn  to  speak  to  the  people  on  topics  relating  to  the 
school,  the  church,  the  farm,  the  home,  and  civic  life. 
On  Sunday,  a  union  service  emphasized  the  place  of 
the  church  as  a  spiritual  factor  in  rural  life.  The  re- 
sulting benefits  to  this  small  rural  community  were 
large,  and  the  lives  of  the  people  were  made  hap- 
pier, more  influential,  and  more  hopeful,  and  the  in- 
tellectual, moral,  and  social  tone  of  the  community 
greatly  improved. 

The  community-center  idea.  The  idea  which  this 
movement  typified  has  recently  been  taken  up  in  many 
parts  of  the  United  States,  and  promises  to  render 
large  service  in  uniting  the  people  of  small  towns  and 
rural  communities  for  many  forms  of  important  com- 
munity service.  Community-center  organizations  have 
been  formed,  programs  for  work  laid  out,  and  build- 


First  Floflr  Plan 


Basement  VT&a 


Fig.  38.  FLOOR  PLANS  OF  THE  BRIMFIELD,  ILLINOIS.  COMMUNITY- 
CENTER  HOUSE 

Dedicated  in  1919  in  an  Illinois  village  of  700  population  as  a  memorial  to  the 
soldiers  who  served  in  the  World  War.  A  well-planned  building,  serving  a  town 
and  country  community  of  2000  people.  Building  unfurnished  cost  $26,654.  Seating 
capacity  of  auditorium  and  balcony  is  1400.  Building  has  a  6replace,  two  beating 
plants,  electric  and  ventilating  fans,  air  pressure  tank,  and  electric  lights. 


RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION         160a 

ings  to  form  centers  for  the  community  life  have  been 
erected.  While  many  of  these  community-center  build- 
ings have  been  built  in  villages  and  towns,  others  have 
been  erected  to  form  centers  for  distinctively  rural 
communities.  An  assembly  hall,  dining  room,  and 
kitchen  are  almost  always  found  in  these,  and  many 
also  contain  a  library,  committee  rooms,  a  music 
room.  Red  Cross  room,  Scouts'  room,  and  a  gymna- 
sium. A  few  contain  pool  tables,  bowling  alleys,  and 
facilities  for  bathing.  A  children's  play  room  and  a 
kindergarten  are  also  occasionally  found.  In  connec- 
tion with  some  are  playgrounds  with  apparatus,  tennis 
courts,  and  a  ball  field.  A  Community  Secretary,  or 
Community-House  Director,  is  commonly  employed 
to  plan  and  oversee  the  community  service  program. 
Lectures,  musicals,  dances,  debates,  singing-meets, 
exhibits,  festivals,  dramatic  performances,  and  special 
programs  of  many  kinds  are  held  in  these  centers. 

The  modern  country-life  movement  is  rapidly  be- 
coming a  community  movement,  and  the  community- 
center  house  stands  as  a  visible  symbol  of  the  new  rural 
social  unity  that  is  being  built  up.  What  the  com- 
munity-center house  is  doing  here  and  there,  well- 
organized  new-type  community-center  consolidated 
rural  schools  should  be  doing  all  over  the  nation. 
This  new  community-center  movement  has  much  in 
it  that  the  rural  school  may  adopt  with  great  advan- 
tage to  itself.  All  of  the  new  movements  for  the  im- 
provement of  farm  life,  described  in  this  chapter,  also 
are  of  large  significance  for  rural  education. 


PART  II 
THE  RURAL-SCHOOL  PROBLEM 


CHAPTER  VII 

FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION 

The  school  and  democracy.  The  provision  of  free 
elementary  education  for  all  of  our  people  has  long 
been  a  noteworthy  feature  of  our  American  life.  As 
rapidly  as  new  agricultural  areas  have  been  opened  to 
settlement,  the  little  district  school  has  been  created 
and  has  opened  its  doors  to  the  children  of  the  new 
settlers.  Here  fundamentals  of  English  learning  have 
been  taught  to  all  who  came.  Within  recent  years  the 
struggle  to  eliminate  illiteracy  in  our  country,  by  insist- 
ing on  the  fundamentals  of  learning  for  all,  has  been 
marked  in  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  States. 
The  little  country  schoolhouse  at  the  crossroads  or 
by  the  wayside,  with  its  handful  of  pupils  and  its 
American  flag,  has  become  a  marked  feature  of  our 
landscape.  The  establishment  of  such  schools  has 
no  doubt  contributed  much  to  the  creation  and  pre- 
servation of  a  democratic  spirit  among  us,  and  their 
establishment  has  also  done  much  to  weld  the  differ- 
ent elements  in  our  population  into  a  homogeneous 
whole.  The  creation  of  new  schools  has  been  made 
easy  of  accomplishment  under  the  laws,  and  school 
have  been  multiplied  in  such  numbers  as  to  bring  i, 
school  near  to  the  home  of  every  child. 


164 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


Until  very  recently  about  the  only  progress  made  in 
rural  education  was  in  the  multiplication  of  schools 
and  schoolhouses.  While  the  cities  were  expending 
much  thought  on  their  school  systems,  and  were  in- 
creasing the  efficiency  of  them  by  adjusting  them  to 
the  new  and  more  complex  life  conditions  which  they 
faced,  the  rural  school,  as  an  institution,  not  only 


•^''::ii::^5feili!i^ 


Fio.  39.    THE  SCHOOL  BY  THE  WAYSIDB 


i^,: 


stood  still,  but  in  many  cases  actually  slid  backward. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the  average  rural 
school  gradually  declined  in  efficiency,  and  came  to 
render  a  much  less  useful  community  service  than  did 
the  earlier  type  of  country  school. 

The  decline  of  the  district  school.  The  changes 
which  have  marked  the  third  and  fourth  periods  in  our 
agricultural  development  have  brought  forcibly  to  tht 
front  the  need  of  a  fundamental  change  in  the  nature 
and  purpose  of  our  rural  education.  In  many  country 


FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS 


165 


schools  the  number  of  pupils  has  greatly  declined 
within  the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  Other  schools 
have  been  entirely  closed.  Some  districts  have  been 
depleted  by  the  removal  of  farmers  to  the  cities  or 
to  other  farming 
regions,  and,  due 
to    an    introduc- 
tion of  machinery, 
the  elimination  of 
small    farms,    or 
to    new    farming 
conditions;    while 
other       districts, 
where     no     such 
changes  have  tak- 
en    place,     have 
suffered  a  loss  by 
reason  of  the  grow- 
ing-up  of  the  chil- 
dren and  by  the 
decreasing  size  of 
families  in  the  district.     In  still  other  districts  the 
school  has  been  depleted  because  many  of  the  farmers 
now  send  their  children  to  town,  to  obtain  better  edu- 
cational advantages  for  them.    The  elimination  of  the 
small  children  at  the  bottom  and  the  older  ones  at 
the  top,  due  to  grading  and  the  development  of  high 
schools,  has  also  served  to  deplete  still  further  the  rural 
school. 


Fio.  40.    A  ONE-PUPIL  CLASS 
Many  such  exist  in  every  county. 


166  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  result  of  recent  changes.  As  a  result  of  these 
changes  it  has  come  about  that  there  is  an  increasing 
number  of  rural  schools  which  have  so  few  pupils  and 
so  many  classes  that  there  is  little  chance  for  mind  to 
wrestle  with  mind.  Such  schools  lack  interest,  enthu- 
siasm, and  impulses  to  action,  and  usually  have  poor 
attendance  and  a  short  term.  For  such  schools  the 
financial  support  is  usually  small  and  the  moral  sup- 
port weak.  The  frequent  changes  in  teachers;  the 
inadequate  supervision;  the  lack  of  proper  direction; 
and  the  poor,  inadequate,  and  too  often  run-down 
school  building,  make  the  school  almost  wholly  lacking 
in  the  elements  which  are  necessary  to  make  it  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  lives  of  country  children.  Com- 
pared with  a  good  town  school,  the  little  rural  school  is 
often  miserably  poor,  and  the  mere  handful  of  pupils, 
the  overburdened  program,  and  the  lack  of  ideas  or 
impulses  to  effective  action  on  the  part  of  either  teacher 
or  school  authorities  create  heavy  odds  against  a  life 
in  the  open  country.  While  better  off  in  many  respects, 
the  small  village  school  often  suffers  from  many  of 
these  same  influences. 

Rural  school  still  of  large  importance.  Yet  about 
one  half  of  the  school  children  of  the  United  States  are 
enrolled  in  the  rural  schools,^  and  perhaps  ninety  per  cent 
of  the  children  of  the  rural  population  receive  no  other 
education.  That  the  education  provided  for  such  chil- 

*  If  small  town  schools  are  added,  about  three  fifths  are  enrolle<i 
In  non-urban  schools. 


FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS 


167 


dren  is  what  it  ought  to  be,  or  might  easily  be  made  to 
be,  few  will  maintain.  Rural  children  are  entitled  to 
something  better,  and  the  interests  of  the  state  de- 
mand that  there  be  a  better  equalization  of  the  oppor- 
tunities and  advantages  of  education,  as  between  the 
city  boy  or  girl  on  the  one  hand  and  the  boy  and  girl 
in  the  small  villages  and  the  rural  districts  on  the 
other. 

Poor  rural  schools  not  necessary.  That  it  is  possi- 
ble to  provide,  in  most  cases,  as  good  an  education 
for  rural  as  for 
city  children,  and 
that  this  ought  to 
be  done  in  the 
interests  of  rural 
and  national  effi- 
ciency, we  believe 
will  be  evident  to 
any  one  who  will 
carefully  study  the  question.  The  chief  reason  why  this 
has  not  been  done  before  now,  and  the  chief  difficulty 
encountered  in  trying  to  provide  such  advantages  to- 
day, is  the  conservatism  and  low  educational  ideals  of 
the  people  in  the  rural  communities  themselves.  Too 
many  farmers  have  no  proper  conception  as  to  the  pos- 
sibilities of  education,  or  what  is  possible  for  country 
children.  Lacking  this,  they  naturally  fail  to  see  the 
necessity  of  new  forms  of  organization,  or  of  increased 
expenditures  for  teachers,  equipment,  or  supervision. 


■■^^SM^^^^^^:^^ 


Fio.  41.    A  TYPICAL  RUN-DOWN  SCHOOL- 
HOUSE 


168  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

This  lack  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  they  are  them- 
selves products  of  the  present  system,  —  a  system 
which  has  been  hallowed  by  age  and  endeared  by 
sentiment,  and  this  age  and  sentiment  blind  them  to 
the  greater  possibilities  which  are  easily  within  their 
reach.  Tremendously  impressed  with  the  results  ac- 
complished in  the  past  under  the  old  system,  the  short- 
comings of  the  present  schools  have  not  been  seen.  The 
comparative  isolation  of  the  rural  home  and  of  the 
rural  school  renders  both  somewhat  immune  from  the 
criticism  and  the  contagion  for  improvement  which 
continually  stir  the  city  and  compel  progressive  action 
there. 

The  recent  criticism  from  without.  The  past  twenty- 
five  years  have  been  a  period  of  criticism  and  recon- 
struction in  public  education,  and  within  the  past 
decade  the  rural  school  has  come  in  for  its  share  of  dis- 
cussion and  criticism.  Unlike  the  schools  of  the  city, 
the  criticism  has  come  largely  from  without,  instead 
of  from  within.  During  the  past  ten  to  twenty  years 
no  part  of  our  public-school  system  has  come  in  for 
more  thought  and  attention  than  have  our  rural 
schools,  yet  no  part,  generally  speaking,  has  shown  so 
little  improvement.  Hundreds  of  articles  have  been 
written  on  the  subject,  hundreds  of  addresses  have 
been  made,  and  numbers  of  carefully  prepared  reports 
have  been  submitted.  Legislators,  citizens,  teachers. 
Grangers,  —  all  have  considered  the  problem  and 
have  offered  suggestions  for  improvement.    Despite 


FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS  169 

many  recent  advances,  and  despite  a  number  of  ex- 
amples of  reorganized  and  redirected  rural  schools,  the 
problem,  generally  speaking,  remains  largely  with  us, 
and  is  as  yet  largely  unsolved.  Only  a  small  percent- 
age of  our  rural  people  have  as  yet  grasped  the  signifi- 
cance for  rural  life  and  education  of  the  changes  which 
have  been  proposed. 

The  recent  rural-life  movement.  Within  very  recent 
years,  one  might  say  largely  in  the  past  ten,  a  very  sig- 
nificant movement  for  the  conservation  and  improve- 
ment of  all  rural  life  and  institutions  has  sprung  up  in 
this  country.  This  has  for  its  purpose  nothing  less 
than  that  of  so  reshaping  and  so  redirecting  the  insti- 
tutions of  rural  society  that  rural  civilization  will  be- 
come as  effective  and  satisfying  for  country  people  as 
that  of  the  town  and  city  now  is  for  city  people.  The 
appointment,  by  President  Roosevelt  in  1908,  of  a  Na- 
tional Commission  on  Country  Life  was  a  formal  recog- 
nition of  the  movement,  and  the  report  of  this  com- 
mission, in  1909,  stated  the  needs  and  deficiencies  of 
the  rural  life  of  to-day,  and  pointed  out  possible  reme- 
dies and  lines  for  future  action.  The  movement  is  not 
a  "  back-to-the-land  movement,"  in  the  newspaper 
sense  of  the  term,  which  is  a  doubtful  propaganda, 
but  rather  a  movement  to  even  up  educational  advan- 
tages, institutional  life,  and  social  opportunities  as  be- 
tween the  country  and  the  city.  Its  immediate  im- 
pulse has  been  a  desire  to  improve  farming  and  to 
make  it  a  more  satisfying  life  career,  but  this  also  in- 


170  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

volves  an  improvement  of  rural  social  institutions, 
chief  among  which  are  the  church,  the  school,  the 
home,  and  rural  social  life.  For  the  next  quarter  of  a 
century,  at  least,  we  shall  in  all  probability  witness 
a  further  marked  development  and  expansion  of  this 
rural-life  movement.  It  will  be  economic,  social,  reli- 
gious, educational,  and,  in  all  probability,  political  as 
well.  The  beginnings  of  the  movement  go  back  some 
distance,  but  it  is  only  recently  that  the  movement 
has  begun  to  express  itself  with  sufficient  clearness  to 
attract  general  attention. 

The  expression  of  this  new  country-life  movement 
with  which  we  are  here  most  interested  is  that  phase 
of  it  which  aims  to  reshape  and  redirect  the  rural 
school,  and  it  is  this  phase  of  the  movement  which  we 
shall  consider  in  the  succeeding  pages  of  this  book. 

Away-from-the-farm  influence  of  the  rural  school. 
The  fundamental  needs  of  the  rural  and  small  village 
schools  of  to-day  are  that  they  be  redirected  and  revi- 
talized. Since  the  change  in  direction  of  the  rural  and 
village  school  in  the  late  seventies  and  early  eighties, 
as  described  in  chapter  iv,  these  schools  have  departed 
further  and  further  from  the  old  rural  type,  and  the 
away-from-the-farm  influence  in  rural  education  has 
been  marked.  The  uniform  textbooks,  which  have 
been  introduced  by  law,  were  books  written  primarily 
for  the  city  child;  the  graded  course  of  study,  which 
was  superimposed  from  above,  was  a  city  course  of 
study;  the  ideals  of  the  school  became,  in  large  part, 


FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS 


171 


city  and  professional  in  type;  and  the  city-educated 
and  city-trained  teachers  have  talked  of  the  city,  over- 
emphasized the  affairs  of  the  city,  and  sighed  to  get 
back  to  the  city  to  teach.  The  subjects  of  instruction 


Fio.  42.    A  TYPICAL  RURAL  SCHOOL  OF  THE  BETTER  CLASS 

This  is  a  good  example  of  from  one  third  to  one  half  of  the  212,000  rural  schools 
of  the  United  States. 

have  been  formal  and  traditional,  and  the  course  of 
instruction  has  been  designed  more  to  prepare  for  en- 
trance to  a  city  or  town  high  school  than  for  life  in  the 
open  country.  So  far  as  the  school  has  been  vocational 
in  spirit,  it  has  been  the  city  vocations  and  professions 
for  which  it  has  tended  to  prepare  its  pupils,  and  not 
the  vocations  of  the  farm  and  the  home.  The  natural 
result  of  this  change  in  direction  has  been  that  the 
rural  school  has  lost  its  former  vitality,  and  country 


172  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

people  have  so  thoroughly  lost  interest  in  it  that  it  is 
now  usually  difficult  to  interest  them  in  the  shortcom- 
ings of  their  school  or  to  secure  their  cooperation  for 
its  improvement. 

Need  of  redirecting  the  school.  The  expression  of 
this  new  country-life  movement,  as  it  relates  to  edu- 
cation, is  in  the  form  of  a  proposal  to  redirect  and 
revitalize  the  rural  and  village  schools;  to  relate  them 
directly  to  their  environment;  and  to  interest  rural 
people  again  in  their  schools  by  creating  schools  which 
will  make  a  direct  appeal  to  them.  It  is  also  proposed 
to  create  a  new  type  of  school  to  meet  modern  educa- 
tional needs.  The  present  marked  interest  in  agricul- 
tural education  and  in  the  general  improvement  of 
rural  life  offers  to  the  school  an  opportunity  to  begin 
a  reorganization  which  will  change  the  direction  of  its 
efforts,  and  give  to  it  new  vitality  as  a  rural  institution. 
The  accomplishment  of  such  a  result  will  reestablish 
the  school  as  an  important  rural  social  institution,  and 
will  be  of  much  more  importance  than  the  mere  intro- 
duction of  agriculture  as  a  new  subject  of  study. 

Difficulties  to  be  encountered.  The  problem  of  how 
to  redirect  the  rural  schools  and  make  them  efficient 
rural  social  institutions  is  not  a  simple  one,  and  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  an  accomplishment  must 
not  be  underestimated.  The  decreasing  attendance 
at  the  rural  schools;  the  increasing  farm  tenantry; 
the  peculiar  attitude  of  mind  of  the  farming  popula- 
tion, due  to  the  lack  of  social  contact  and  cooperation; 


FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS  173 

the  inadequate  school  equipment;  the  poorly  trained 
teachers,  and  the  temporary  nature  of  the  employ- 
ment; the  low  salaries,  and  the  meager  financial  sup- 
port; the  small  and  irregular  attendance,  and  the  short 
term;  the  almost  total  absence  of  supervision  of  a  con- 
structive and  helpful  type;  and  the  lack  of  a  unity 
of  effort  and  of  a  definite  program  for  helpful  service; 
—  these  are  the  chief  diflSculties  which  beset  the  path 
of  those  who  would  improve  and  transform  the  rural 
schools  of  our  land.  The  mere  enumeration  of  the  prin- 
cipal diflSculties  to  be  encountered  makes  the  problem 
of  redirection  seem  formidable  enough. 

The  great  rural-life  interests.  Yet  these  difficulties 
are  not  insurmountable,  though  time,  more  money, 
and  some  changes  in  organization  will  be  required.  As 
the  school  begins  to  redirect  its  efforts  so  as  to  empha- 
size in  its  instruction  the  vital  home  and  community 
interests  of  the  region,  and  to  give  expression  in  its 
work  to  the  interests  and  common  experiences  of  the 
community  in  which  it  is  located,  these  difficulties  will 
begin  to  fade  away.  The  redirection  of  rural  educa- 
tion means  that  the  school  is  to  abandon  its  city  ideals 
and  standards,  except  as  these  are  adaptable  to  rural 
as  well  as  to  city  schools,  and  to  develop  its  instruc- 
tion with  reference  to  its  environment  and  the  local 
interests  and  needs.  The  main  effort  of  its  instruction 
should  be  to  put  its  pupils  into  sympathetic  touch 
with  the  rural  life  about  them,  in  which  the  great  ma- 
jority of  them  ought  to  find  their  future  homes.  Just 


174  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

as  the  better  city  schools  definitely  recognize  and  em- 
phasize in  their  instruction  the  needs  and  the  voca- 
tions incident  to  city  life,  so  our  rural  schools  should 
be  so  redirected  as  to  emphasize  in  their  instruction 
the  vocations  of  the  home  and  the  farm,  for  which  the 
great  majority  of  their  pupils  are  destined.  In  the  open 
country  the  soil  and  the  home  will  ever  remain  the 
great  prime  interests,  and  the  instruction  provided, 
while  including  whatever  of  city  instruction  is  adapted 
to  country  needs,  should  nevertheless  keep  these  prime 
rural  interests  clearly  in  the  foreground. 

Legitimate  functions  of  the  redirected  school. 
Merely  to  educate  the  young  ought  to  be  but  a  part  of 
the  mission  of  the  school.  This  is  important,  of  course, 
and  it  should  be  done  much  better  than  it  is  now  done. 
The  school,  though,  ought  to  reach  out  into  the  com- 
munity life  and  influence  it  positively  for  good.  The 
great  and  fundamental  interests  of  the  home  and  the 
vocation  should  be  touched  and  quickened  by  it.  A 
new  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  rural  people 
for  agricultural  improvement  and  for  the  conservation 
of  the  soil  should  be  awakened.  The  village,  which  is 
the  center  for  an  agricultural  community,  also  should 
be  awakened  to  a  sense  of  its  relationship  to  the  prob- 
lem of  rural  welfare.  The  conservation  of  soil  fertility; 
the  improvement  of  farming  methods;  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  natural  scenery  of  the  community;  the 
dissemination  of  agricultural  and  general  knowledge; 
the  preparation  for  the  intelligent  use  of  leisure  time; 


FUNDAMENTAL  NEEDS  175 

the  improvement  of  home  life;  the  conservation  of 
child-life,  girlhood,  and  motherhood;  the  stimulating 
of  social  organizations  to  useful  activity;  and,  in  gen- 
eral, the  development  of  a  better  rural  society;  —  all 
of  these  are  as  much  legitimate  functions  of  the  re- 
directed school  as  is  the  teaching  to  read  and  write 
and  cipher.  When  teachers  and  school  officials  come  to 
see  this  as  so,  then  will  the  school  be  on  the  way  to 
becoming  a  useful  center  for  the  community  life. 

A  group  of  problems  involved.  To  accomplish  such 
a  fundamental  change  in  an  old  estabUshed  institu- 
tion, controlled  as  it  now  is  by  the  rural  people  them- 
selves, is  by  no  means  a  simple  or  an  easy  task,  and 
naturally  cannot  be  accomplished  in  a  day  or  a  year. 
To  reach  the  average  farmer  and  to  secure  his  active 
cooperation  for  the  improvement  of  the  rural  school, 
especially  if  it  is  going  to  cost  materially  more,  is  a 
proverbially  difficult  undertaking.  The  problem,  too, 
is  not  a  single  one,  but  is  in  reality  composed  of  a  num- 
ber of  related  problems  in  educational  organization  and 
administration  which  will  have  to  be  met  and  solved. 
These  relate  to:  (1)  the  plans  of  organization;  (2)  the 
system  of  maintenance;  (3)  the  teaching  equipment; 
(4)  the  instruction  imparted;  (5)  the  training  and  work 
of  the  teacher;  (6)  possible  reorganizations;  (7)  the 
supervision  of  instruction;  and  (8)  the  extension  of  edu- 
cational advantages  and  opportunities.  These  separate 
problems  it  will  now  be  our  purpose  to  consider,  in 
order. 


176  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Explain  how  it  is  that  the  average  rural  school,  while  perhaps 
a  better  school  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago,  is  still  less  efficient 
than  it  was  then. 

2.  Enumerate  the  different  influences  which  have  contributed 
to  the  depletion  of  the  district  school. 

3.  How  many  of  these  influences  have  been  in  operation  in  your 
community  during  recent  years? 

4.  How  many  small  schools  exist  in  your  state?   In  your  county? 

5.  Excluding  town  schools,  what  is  the  average  enrollment  and  at- 
tendance in  the  schools  of  your  county? 

6.  What  is  the  average  recitation  period  (a)  in  such  schools?  (6) 
In  the  same  grade  in  town  or  city  schools? 

7.  Compare  the  city  and  the  country  in  the  matter  of  constructi've 
criticism  of  their  own  institutions  and  life. 

8.  Why  have  the  criticism  and  constructive  proposals  for  rural 
education,  which  have  characterized  the  past  decade,  come 
almost  entirely  from  other  sources  than  the  coimtry  people 
themselves? 

9.  Distinguish  between  the  " back-to-the-land  movement"  and  the 
rural-life  movement.  Why  is  the  former  a  doubtful  propaganda? 

10.  Explain  how  the  rural  school  has  prepared  for  the  city  vocations, 
rather  than  for  rural  life. 

11.  What  is  meant  by  the  statement  that  the  rural  school  should 
"develop  its  instruction  with  reference  to  its  local  environment 
and  needs"  ? 

12.  Is  the  statement,  "As  the  home  is  the  center  of  civilization,  so 
the  home  subjects  should  be  the  center  of  every  school,"  good 
educational  doctrine?   Why? 

13.  How  can  we  adapt  instruction  in  the  old  fundamental  subjects 
to  "  the  needs  of  the  soil  and  the  home"? 

14.  Explain,  as  well  as  can  be  done  at  this  point  in  the  discussion, 
what  is  meant  by  saying  that  "the  school  must  be  funda- 
mentally redirected." 

16.  Discuss  possible  ways  in  which  the  legitimate  functions  of  the 
redirected  school,  as  enumerated  on  pages  174-175,  might  be 
undertaken. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
ORGANIZATION  AND  MAINTENANCE 

As  some  understanding  of  the  different  type  plans 
for  organization  and  maintenance,  as  found  in  the  dif- 
ferent American  states,  is  essential  for  a  proper  grasp 
of  the  rural-school  problem  of  to-day,  we  shall  devote 
the  present  chapter  to  a  brief  consideration  of  these 
different  type  plans,  in  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  man- 
agement and  support  of  the  rural  and  small  village 
schools  of  our  land. 

Early  schools  community  undertakings.  Schools 
and  the  means  of  education,  with  us,  arose  as  distinctly 
community  undertakings,  and  not  as  state  systems 
of  education.  With  us,  historically,  the  development 
has  been  from  the  community  outward,  and  the  organi- 
zation of  county  and  state  school  systems  has  come 
by  a  gradual  grouping  together  of  these  community  ef- 
forts. While  a  few  of  the  early  colonies,  notably  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut,  early  ordered  the  mainte- 
nance of  a  school  by  the  towns,  in  most  of  the  other  states 
schools  preceded  laws,  and  the  early  legislation  merely 
authorized  and  permitted,  as  public  undertakings, 
what  had  already  begun  as  private  affairs.  The  first 
schools,  generally,  knew  no  higher  authority  than  the 
will  of  the  people  creating  them.  Even  after  general 
legislation  had  begun  to  express  the  state  feeling  of  a 


178  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

need  for  education,  the  laws  for  a  long  time  related 
almost  entirely  to  permission  to  tax,  the  building  of 
schoolhouses,  the  length  of  the  term,  and  the  rights  of 
the  community  in  guiding  and  directing  the  school. 
Such  supervision  as  was  given  was  that  directed  by 
local  needs  and  local  opinion,  rather  than  by  the  needs 
of  any  larger  whole. 

School  systems  a  product  of  evolution.  As  the 
several  states  have  gradually  formulated  their  school 
laws  and  organized  their  school  systems,  they  have 
in  nearly  all  cases  at  first  merely  gathered  up  into  a 
state  school  system  the  local  organizations  existing  at 
the  time.  It  has  naturally  followed  that  marked  differ- 
ences obtain  in  methods  of  organization,  support,  and 
administration,  as  between  the  different  states,  and 
that  the  educational  conditions  existing  to-day  in  any 
one  state,  as  a  result  of  this  long  popular  evolution, 
may  not  be  those  which  are  most  desirable  from  the 
point  of  view  of  present-day  educational  ideas  and 
ideals  as  to  organization  and  administration.  In  some 
cases,  though,  the  existing  organization  is  capable  of 
being  adapted  to  meet  the  new  needs;  in  others,  no 
substantial  progress  is  possible  without  some  funda= 
mental  change. 

I.    TYPES   OF   ORGANIZATION 

1.   The  District  System 

The  most  common  and,  as  it  is  often  stated,  the  most 
democratic  type  of  school  organization  and  adminis- 


180  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tration  which  we  have  in  the  United  States  to-day  is 
what  is  known  as  the  district  system.  The  extent  of  its 
use  is  shown  by  the  map  on  the  preceding  page.  The 
system  of  district  control  originated  in  Massachusetts 
in  response  to  a  local  need,  and  was  carried  rapidly 
to  the  westward  by  New  England  settlers.  In  its  essen- 
tial features  the  district  system  of  school  organization 
has  changed  but  little  since  its  first  establishment, 
though  the  different  states  have  since  found  it  neces- 
sary, due  to  changing  economic  and  educational  con- 
ditions, greatly  to  curtail  its  power  and  its  privileges, 
and  in  some  cases  to  abandon  its  use  altogether. 

Its  essential  features.  Wherever  half  a  dozen  fami- 
lies lived  near  enough  together  to  make  organization 
possible,  they  were  permitted  to  meet  together  and  to 
form  a  school  district.  They  then  elected  a  board  of 
school  directors  or  school  trustees  to  represent  them, 
voted  to  erect  a  schoolhouse,  to  employ  a  teacher,  and 
to  levy  a  school  tax  on  the  property  of  the  people  within 
the  district.  The  districts,  as  organized,  varied  in  shape 
as  the  necessities  required,  and  in  size  from  two  or  three 
to  twelve,  fifteen,  or  more  square  miles  in  area.  The 
process  of  district  formation,  subdivision  of  districts, 
and  alteration  of  district  boundaries  was  all  made  easy 
of  accomplishment  under  the  early  laws,  and,  as  new 
families  moved  into  the  districts,  the  process  of  mul- 
tiplication and  division  of  districts  went  on  until  a 
little  district  school  was  finally  found  within  walking 
distance  of  the  children  of  every  farm  home.   As  one 


OEGANIZATION  AND   MAINTENANCE       181 

recent  writer  has  put  it,  "  the  measure  for  district  or- 
ganization came  to  be  the  length  of  a  child's  legs." 

Evolution  of  district  organization.  Organized  at  first 
only  where  there  were  settlements,  finally  all  of  the 
area  of  each  county  came  to  be  included  in  some  school 
district.  The  evolution  of  districts  is  well  shown  in  the 
illustrations  on  this  and  the  following  page.  These  show 


1835  I860 

Fio.  44.    EARLY  ORGANIZATION  OP  SCHOOL  DISTRICTS 

the  process  of  district  formation  within  a  county.  At 
first,  during  its  period  of  settlement,  only  a  portion  of 
the  county  was  organized  into  school  districts;  later 
on,  all  was  so  organized,  and  the  towns,  with  their 
graded  school  systems,  began  to  develop;  still  later  the 
increase  of  population  led  to  the  development  of  a  city 
and  two  towns  along  the  new  railway,  and  to  the  sub- 
division of  a  number  of  the  larger  rural  districts;  and. 
Still  later,  the  changes  in  rural  population,  due  to  the 


182 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


changes  in  our  agricultural  development  traced  in  the 
first  part  of  this  book,  have  led  to  the  depopulation  of 
the  rural  districts  and  to  the  abandonment  of  some  of 
the  schools.  In  one  part  of  the  county  eight  districts 
have  united  to  form  a  consolidated  school. 

District  powers  and  duties.    Each  school  district, 
once  legally  created,  becomes  a  body  politic  and  cor~ 


1885  1910 

Fie.  45.    LATER  ORGANIZATION  AND  REORGANIZATION 

porate,  is  assigned  a  certain  name  or  number,  and  pos- 
sesses certain  important  legal  powers.  These  include 
the  right  to  make  contracts,  to  sue  and  to  be  sued, 
and  to  purchase  and  hold  property  for  school  purposes. 
For  its  government,  trustees  or  school  directors,  quite 
generally  three  in  number,  are  elected  by  the  people 
to  represent  them.  At  first  the  elections  were  for  one- 
year  terms,  but  later  three-year  terms,  with  one 
elected  each  year,  was  substituted  as  likely  to  give 


ORGANIZATION  AND  MAINTENANCE      183 

better  results.  At  first  these  district  trustees  managed 
the  schools  about  as  they  or  the  people  wished,  and  in 
many  states  these  little  local  boards  still  retain  large 
and  important  powers. 

Curtailing  the  powers  in  the  interests  of  efficiency. 
In  all  parts  of  the  United  States  there  has  been  a  tend- 
ency within  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  and  more 
clearly  marked  and  expressed  in  some  states  than  in 
others,  to  limit  the  powers  of  the  district  and  of  the 
district-school  authorities,  in  the  interests  of  a  more 
eflScient  administration  of  our  rural  schools.  Many  of 
the  duties  and  functions  once  exercised  by  the  district 
authorities,  such  as  the  certification  of  teachers,  selec- 
tion of  textbooks,  and  the  outlining  of  the  course  of 
study,  have  been  taken  from  them;  while  their  powers 
of  making  contracts,  fixing  tax  rates,  terms,  and  wages, 
and  directing  the  teacher  have  been  greatly  curtailed. 
Most  questions  of  educational  policy,  procedure,  and 
finance,  it  has  been  found,  are  better  settled  if  removed 
entirely  from  the  control  of  these  district  officers,  and 
given  either  to  county  or  state  educational  authori- 
ties for  determination  or  settled  once  for  all  by  general 
state  law.  So  clearly  have  the  defects  and  limitations 
of  the  district  system  been  revealed,  as  a  system  for 
the  administration  of  a  series  of  rural  schools,  that  a 
number  of  states  (see  dates  on  the  map  on  page  179) 
have  entirely  abolished  the  system,  while  others  have 
retained  it  only  in  part,  and  have  superimposed  over 
it  county  and  state  systems  of  school  administration 
of  more  or  less  strength  and  authority. 


184  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Where  the  district  system  rendered  service.  As  a 
simple  and  democratic  means  for  providing  schools  for 
the  children  of  people  under  somewhat  pioneer  condi- 
tions, the  district  system  has  rendered,  and  in  some  of 
our  Western  States  is  still  rendering,  a  useful  service. 
Where  population  is  sparse,  communication  difficult, 
educational  ideas  rather  primitive,  supervision  lack- 
ing, and  economic  conditions  somewhat  uniform  and 
undeveloped,  the  system  is  naturally  of  most  impor- 
tance. Under  the  earlier  economic  conditions,  in  the 
days  of  boarding-around  arrangements,  and  before  the 
evolution  of  our  present-day  ideas  as  to  the  nature  and 
progress  of  education,  the  district  system  undoubtedly 
rendered  its  most  useful  service.  The  system,  though, 
has  become  hallowed  by  age  and  endeared  by  senti- 
ment; in  a  number  of  states  few  men  living  there  have 
known  any  other;  and  the  proposal  now  to  substitute 
a  system  better  adapted  to  the  needs  of  rural  people, 
under  our  complex  modern  conditions  of  life,  at  once 
meets  with  most  determined  opposition. 

Chief  objections  to  the  district  system.  The  chief 
objections  to  the  district  system  of  school  organization 
are  that  it  is  no  longer  so  well  adapted  to  meet  present 
conditions  and  needs  as  are  other  systems  of  larger 
scope;  that  the  district  authorities  but  seldom  see  the 
real  needs  of  their  schools  or  the  possibilities  of  rural 
education;  that  as  a  system  of  school  administration  it 
is  expensive,  short-sighted,  inefficient,  inconsistent,  and 
unprogressive;  that  it  leads  to  great  and  unnecessary 


A  prairie  sod  schoolhouse. 


A  Southern  mountaineer  schoolhouse. 
WHERE   THE   DISTRICT  SYSTEM   RENDEREB   SERVICE 


ORGANIZATION   AND   MAINTENANCE      185 

inequalities  in  schools,  terms,  educational  advantages, 
and  to  an  unwise  multiplication  of  schools;  that  the 
taxing  unit  is  too  small,  and  the  trustees  too  penurious; 
that  trustees,  because  they  hold  the  purse-strings,  fre- 
quently assume  authority  over  many  matters  which 
they  are  not  competent  to  manage;  and  that  most 
of  the  progress  in  rural-school  improvement  has  been 
made  without  the  support  and  often  against  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  trustees  and  of  the  people  they  represent. 
Excessive  number  of  school  officers.  The  excessive 
number  of  school  officers  required  to  manage  the  schools 
under  the  district  system  is  one  of  its  greatest  sources 
of  weakness.  From  150  to  500  school  officials,  which  is 
an  absurdly  large  number,  are  required  under  the  sys- 
tem to  manage  the  rural-school  affairs  of  an  average 
county,  employing  from  50  to  175  teachers,  and  cost- 
ing from  $25,000  to  $150,000  a  year  for  maintenance. 
There  is  no  educational  or  business  reason  for  the  elec- 
tion of  such  an  absurdly  large  number  of  school  officials. 
In  one  of  our  most  important  states,  about  45,000  school 
directors  and  township  officers  are  required  to  manage 
the  business  of  the  rural  and  ungraded  schools  of  the 
state.  This  is  about  one  for  every  thirteen  males  resid- 
ing in  the  rural  districts,  about  three  for  each  teacher 
employed,  and  about  one  for  every  two  hundred  dollars 
of  rural  expenditure.  Another  large  state  requires 
about  25,000  school  directors  for  its  ungraded  schools. 
Another  requires  about  28,000  directors  for  its  rural 
schools,  and  still  another  about  27,000  directors  for  its 


186  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

rural  schools.  To  expect  to  find  this  number  of  capa- 
ble school  officers  is  to  expect  what  cannot  be  found, 
and  this  large  number  of  school  officers  stands  to-day 
as  one  of  the  most  serious  blocks  in  the  way  of  pro- 
gressive educational  action.  To  have  a  fully  organized 
school  board  in  every  little  school  district  in  a  county^ 
a  board  endowed  by  law  with  important  financial  and 
educational  powers,  is  wholly  unnecessary  from  any 
business  or  educational  point  of  view,  and  is  more 
likely  to  prevent  progressive  action  than  to  secure  it. 
As  shown  by  the  map  on  page  179,  a  number  of  states 
have  abandoned  the  district  system  (the  dates  on  the 
states  are  the  dates  of  such  abandonment)  for  a  larger 
and  a  better  form  of  educational  organization.  As  a  sys° 
tern  of  educational  organization  the  district  system  has 
been  condemned  by  educators  for  forty  years,  and  the 
educational  conditions  existing  in  any  state  to-day,  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  rural  education,  are  in  large  part 
to  be  determined  by  how  far  the  state  has  proceeded 
along  the  line  of  curtailing  the  powers  of  the  district- 
school  officials,  or  of  abandoning  the  district  system  of 
school  administration.  The  advantages  of  a  larger  unit 
will  be  brought  out  more  in  detail  as  we  proceed. 

S.  The  Town  or  Township  System 

The  next  type  of  organization,  as  we  proceed  upward, 
is  that  of  the  town  in  New  England  and  the  township 
in  the  North  Central  States.  A  New  England  town  is 
irregular  in  shape,  following  hills,  watercourses,  or  old 


ORGANIZATION  AND  MAINTENANCE      187 


roads,  and  in  size  contains  from  twenty  to  forty  square 
miles.  A  Western  township  is  regular  in  shape,  except 
in  southern  Ohio,  and  contains  thirty-six  square  miles. 
The  exceptions  to  this  are  in  northeastern  Ohio,  where 
the  townships  contain  but  twenty -five  square  miles, 
and  in  the  case  of  a  few  fractional  townships,  which 


V 

'         '"''"^1 

/I 

/^ 

I 

1 

■^"^ 

) 

- 

J 

fefe>,       < 

,.^.| 

FlO.  46.    NEW  ENGLAND  TOWNS  AND  WESTERN  TOWNSHIPS 
COMPARED 


Kssex  County,  Mass.  Area  497  8q.  miles. 
84  towns. 


Huntington  County,  Ind.   Area 
386  sq.  miles.     12  townships. 


may  exist  in  any  state.  The  New  England  town  thus 
has  natural  geographic  boundaries,  and  is  much  more 
likely  to  form  a  center  for  local  government  and  commu- 
nity life  than  is  the  very  regular  Western  township,  with 
its  lines  drawn  straight  across  the  county,  with  no  refer- 
ence to  geographical  features  or  comjnunity  possibilities. 
The  New  England  town  system.  Under  the  town 
system  of  management,  as  we  find  it  in  New  England, 
the  educational  affairs  of  each  town  are  managed  by  one 
school  board,  known  as  the  "  Town  School  Committee." 
The  schools  of  the  central  village,  town,  or  city,  which 


188  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

forms  the  community  center,  as  well  as  all  of  the  out- 
lying schools,  are  managed  as  a  unit  by  this  one  school 
board.  Each  town  now  forms  a  single  school  district, 
instead  of  being  split  up  into  a  number  of  little  school 
districts,  as  was  for  so  long  the  case.  District  lines  still 
remain,  but  only  for  purposes  of  classification  and  of 
regulating  attendance,  and  these  may  be  changed  by 
the  town  school  authorities  at  will.  The  town  school 
committee  must  provide  adequately  for  the  education 
of  all  the  children  of  the  town  and  for  an  equal  length 
of  time  each  year;  may  close  unnecessary  schools  and 
transport  the  children  to  some  central  school;  makes  all 
contracts,  orders  all  repairs,  and  employs  and  pays  all 
teachers;  maintains  a  central  high  school,  as  well  as 
graded  schools;  and  determines  the  tax  necessary  for 
the  proper  maintenance  of  all  the  schools.  The  schools 
of  a  New  England  town  are  thus  managed  as  a  unit, 
and  just  as  all  of  the  schools  of  a  city  are  managed  by 
one  city  board  of  education. 

Town  vs.  district  school  control.  The  struggle  to 
restore  the  town  as  a  unit  in  New  England  was  a  long 
and  bitter  one,  and  was  only  accomplished  after  a 
struggle  with  the  champions  of  district  rights  and  dis- 
trict-school control.  The  result  of  the  reestablishment 
of  the  town  as  the  school  unit  has  everywhere  been  good. 
Taxes  and  educational  advantages  have  been  equalized 
throughout  the  towns;  better  teachers  have  been  em- 
ployed, and  at  higher  wages;  better  and  more  sanitary 
school  buildings  have  been  erected;  the  consolidation 


ORGANIZATION   AND  MAINTENANCE     189 

of  schools  has  been  greatly  promoted;  close  and  effec- 
tive town  supervision  has  been  instituted;  free  tuition 
at  the  central  town  high  school  has  been  provided; 
special  instruction  in  music,  drawing,  etc.,  has  been 
introduced  into  the  outlying  schools,  as  well  as  in  the 
central  town  school;  and  one  small  board  of  representa- 
tive citizens,  responsible  to  the  people  for  results,  has 
taken  the  place  of  the  many  small  district  school-boards 
and  the  small  army  of  school  oflScials  which  existed 
under  the  old  regime. 

The  Western  township  system.  In  the  Western 
States  we  find  the  purest  type  of  township  school  con- 
trol in  Indiana  and  Ohio.  In  Indiana,  one  township 
trustee,  elected  by  the  people,  manages  all  the  schools 
of  the  township,  except  the  schools  of  any  incorporated 
village  or  town,  which  here  are  under  separate  control. 
In  Ohio,  a  township  school-board  of  five  have  about  the 
same  functions  as  the  one  township  trustee  in  Indiana. 
The  fact  that  in  both  states  —  and  for  that  matter  in  all 
the  states  of  the  North  Central  group  where  the  town- 
ship is  used  as  a  unit  for  school  organization  and  main- 
tenance —  schools  in  incorporated  villages,  towns,  or 
cities  are  under  separate  control  instead  of  under  one 
township  organization,  constitutes  the  most  important 
difference  between  the  Western  township  form  of  or- 
ganization and  that  provided  for  the  New  England 
town.  In  this  respect  the  New  England  town  or- 
ganization is  superior.  Like  the  New  England  town 
system,  however,  the  Western  township  form  of  school 


190  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

organization  attempts  to  provide  for  the  systematic 
organization  of  the  educational  affairs  of  the  whole 
township  under  one  responsible  board,  and  by  so  doing 
to  secure  some  of  the  same  efficiency  which  character- 
izes the  educational  administration  of  a  New  England 
town.  For  this  purpose  it  is  greatly  superior  to  the 
district  system.  It  not  only  provides  for  a  much  bet- 
ter equalization  of  the  opportunities  and  advantages 
of  education,  but  it  is  more  economical  and  efficient  as 
well.  The  chief  disadvantages  of  the  township  as  a 
unit  for  school  organization  are  that  it  is  too  large  for 
some  purposes  and  too  small  for  others,  and  frequently 
the  township  lines  and  community  boundaries  do  not 
coincide.  This  is  well  shown  by  figure  46,  on  page  187. 
In  many  respects  the  county  offers  a  still  better  unit 
of  organization. 

S.  The  County  System 

In  some  of  our  American  states  both  the  district  and 
the  township  units  have  been  completely  subordinated 
to  the  county,  and  what  is  known  as  the  county  sys- 
tem of  school  organization  has  been  instituted.  Mary- 
land, Louisiana,  and  Utah  offer  excellent  types  of  this 
form  of  educational  organization,  and  the  Maryland 
form  is  described  somewhat  in  detail  in  chapter  xiv. 

The  county  unit  in  evolution.  The  county  as  a  unit 
for  educational  organization  is  found  in  some  stage 
in  the  process  of  evolution  in  all  states  west  of  New 
England,  except  Nevada.    All  other  states  have  super- 


ORGANIZATION  AND  MAINTENANCE      191 

imposed  some  form  of  school  superintendent  to  look 
after,  correlate,  and  in  part  subordinate  the  dis- 
trict or  township  school  authorities  beneath.  In 
some  states  the  county  superintendent  has  as  yet  but 
few  and  relatively  unimportant  powers ;  in  a  number 
of  states  his  powers  are  important,  but  chiefly  clerical 
and  financial;  while  in  a  few  states  he  has  been  evolved 
into  an  important  educational  officer.  County  boards 
of  education  have  also  been  established  in  a  number 
of  states.  In  some,  they  are  largely  rudimentary,  and 
have  few  important  functions;  in  others,  they  exercise 
a  number  of  important  powers.  A  county  system  of 
school  organization  may  be  said  to  be  slowly,  though 
sometimes  hardly  consciously,  in  process  of  evolution  in 
most  of  our  states,  and  may  be  looked  to  in  the  future 
as  one  of  our  important  educational  developments. 

Advantages  of  the  county  system.  The  county  sys- 
tem of  school  organization,  a  description  of  which  we 
defer  to  chapters  xiii  and  xiv,  is  merely  an  attempt  to 
apply  to  our  educational  affairs  the  same  common- 
sense  principles  of  business  administration  which  have 
been  put  into  practice,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  other 
departments  of  our  governmental  service,  and  which 
have  been  found  to  give  such  excellent  results  every- 
where in  the  business  world.  Under  the  system  as  best 
developed,  the  people  elect  a  county  board  of  educa- 
tion of  five,  who  are  analogous  to  a  city  board  of  edu- 
cation for  a  city.  This  board  then  selects  and  appoints 
a  county  superintendent  of  schools,  and  such  deputy 


192  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

supervisors  as  are  needed;  determines  the  educational 
policy  for  the  county,  and  sets  financial  limitations; 
manages  the  schools  of  the  county,  outside  of  cities 
having  a  city  superintendent,  as  a  unit  and  after  much 
the  same  method  of  organization  and  management  as 
has  been  found  so  effective  in  city  school  organization; 
alters,  consolidates,  or  abolishes  the  school  districts,  as 
the  best  interests  of  education  require;  oversees  the 
work  of  its  executive  officers;  determines  the  county 
school  tax;  appropriates  all  funds;  employs  teachers, 
fixes,  and  pays  them  their  salaries;  provides  equal 
educational  advantages  and  length  of  term  for  all 
schools  in  the  county,  and  free  high-school  advantages 
for  all  children;  acts  as  a  board  of  control  for  any 
county  high-school,  teachers'  training-school,  or  pa- 
rental school  which  may  be  established;  looks  after  the 
building  and  repair  of  all  school  buildings,  and  the  pur- 
chase of  all  books  and  school  supplies;  and,  in  general, 
manages  the  scattered  schools  of  the  county  as  though 
they  were  a  compact  city  school  system.  Under  such 
a  system  of  school  organization  educational  progress 
can  be  made  in  a  year  which  it  would  take  a  decade  or 
more  to  obtain  under  the  district  system. 

4.   The  State  Unit 

Superimposed  above  all  of  these  units  for  educa- 
tional organization  are  the  state  educational  authori- 
ties, usually  consisting  of  a  commissioner  of  education 
or  a  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  and  a 


ORGANIZATION  AND   MAINTENANCE      193 

small  number  of  deputies  and  assistants,  to  whom  are 
given  certain  powers  of  inspection  and  supervision  of 
the  schools  of  the  state.  These  officers  usually  render 
a  valuable  service  in  the  way  of  inspiration  and  advice 
and  in  directing  legislation,  but  they  are  of  necessity 
too  far  removed  and  have  too  many  other  functions  to 
enable  them  to  render  more  than  general  service  in  the 
solution  of  the  rural-school  problem.  The  real  work- 
ing-out of  this  problem  must  be  done  by  the  county 
and  local  school  authorities,  the  teachers,  and  the  in- 
terested people  of  the  communities  concerned. 

II.    TYPES   OF   MAINTENANCE 

General  Taxation  for  Education 
This  is  an  attempt  to  equalize  both  the  burdens 
and  advantages  of  what,  after  careful  consideration, 
has  been  conceived  to  be  for  the  common  good  of  all, 
and  the  value  and  importance  of  any  plan  for  taxa- 
tion must  be  measured,  in  large  part,  by  how  far  the 
idea  of  equalizing  burdens  and  advancing  the  com- 
mon good  of  all  underlies  the  plan.  If  education 
were  purely  a  local  matter,  such  as  the  maintenance 
of  street  lamps  or  pavements,  the  equalization  of  op- 
portunities and  advantages  would  be  a  matter  of  no 
state  concern;  but  since  nothing  more  fundamentally 
influences  the  future  welfare  of  a  state  than  the  main- 
tenance of  good  schools,  the  matter  is  not  one  that 
ought  to  be  left  entirely  or  even  largely  to  local  initia- 
tive and  effort.  Some  form  of  general  taxation  is  not 
only  desirable,  but  necessary  as  well. 


194  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Just  as  there  are  four  main  types  of  school  organ- 
ization and  control,  the  district,  town  or  township, 
county,  and  state,  —  rising  in  an  ascending  series  of 
values,  —  so  there  are  four  main  types  of  school  main- 
tenance employed  by  our  American  states.  These  are 
based  on  each  of  the  four  units  used  for  organization 
and  control,  and  also  rise  in  an  ascending  series  as  to 
values.  As  the  question  of  adequate  finance  underlies 
almost  every  attempt  at  the  improvement  of  our  rural 
and  village  schools,  a  brief  consideration  of  the  differ- 
ent types  of  school  maintenance  will  also  prove  of  value 
in  understanding  the  problem  we  are  considering. 

1.  District  Taxation 

When  the  people  of  a  little  geographical  area,  known 
as  a  school  district,  first  voted  to  tax  themselves  to 
maintain,  either  wholly  or  in  part,  a  school  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  children  of  the  district,  the  first  step  to- 
ward the  public-school  idea  was  made.  Each  resident 
of  the  district  paid  in  proportion  to  the  value  of  his 
property,  and  shared  in  the  benefits  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  children  he  had  to  be  sent  to  school. 
Some  would  share  who  did  not  pay,  and  some  would 
pay  who  did  not  share.  It  was  a  cooperative  effort  to 
maintain  what  had  been  decided  to  be  for  the  common 
good  of  the  local  community,  and  marked  the  first 
step  in  the  establishment  of  the  principle  that  the 
wealth  of  the  state  must  educate  the  children  of  the 
state.  Further  progress  was  made  when  the  tax  was 


ORGANIZATION   AND   MAINTENANCE       195 

changed  from  permissive  to  mandatory,  and  each 
school  district  in  the  state  was  compelled  to  levy  an 
annual  district  tax  for  the  maintenance  of  a  district 
school.  Under  the  earlier  agricultural  conditions, 
when  the  need  for  education  was  small  and  when 
wealth  was  somewhat  evenly  distributed,  district 
taxation  had  its  greatest  period  of  usefulness. 

Change  in  wealth  and  education.  Since  those  earlier 
days  great  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  and  in  the  kind  of  education  demanded 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  future.  Then  one  man's  farm 
was  worth  about  as  much  as  another's;  there  were  few 
cities,  and  but  little  surplus  wealth;  the  railroads  of  the 
country  were  just  beginning  to  be  built;  there  were  no 
telegraph,  telephone,  or  power- transmission  lines;  no 
express  companies  or  trolley  lines;  but  few  corpora- 
tions, and  those  of  small  size;  no  invisible  wealth; 
but  few  persons  who  were  classed  as  rich;  and  the 
natural  resources  of  the  country  —  coal,  oil,  iron, 
stone,  minerals  —  were  as  yet  practically  unworked; 
wealth  and  property  were  somewhat  evenly  distrib- 
uted; undertakings  of  all  kinds  were  small;  life  was 
simple,  and  required  but  little  to  satisfy  its  needs; 
education  was  a  local  rather  than  a  state  interest; 
and  the  pooling  of  effort  on  a  large  scale  was  not 
then  necessary. 

The  social,  industrial,  and  agricultural  changes 
which  have  taken  place  during  the  half-century  since 
the  beginning  of  the  third  period  in  our  agricultural 


196 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


development  have  changed  the  whole  face  of  the  taxa- 
tion problem.  If  good  schools  are  to  be  maintained 
generally  to-day  there  is  need  for  the  use  of  some 
larger  taxing  unit  than  the  school  district,  and  good 
schools  generally  are  practically  impossible  if  any 
TABLE  OF  ASSESSED  VALUATIONS   I^-rge  dependence  IS  placed 

OF  A  SERIES  OF  RURAL  SCHOOL    on  district  tflYfltion   With 

DISTRICTS    IN    A    MISSOURI   O"  Qistrici:  taxation,  w  itn 
COUNTY  the    increases    and    de- 

creases in  population,  the 
development  of  the  natu- 
ral resources  of  a  state, 
and  the  shifting  economic 
conditions,  the  inequali- 
ties in  taxing  power,  as 
between  districts,  coun- 
ties, and  sections  of  a 
state,  tend  to  become 
more  and  more  pro- 
nounced. As  a  result,  the 
maintenance  of  schools 
by  district  taxation  comes 
to  involve  but  slight  burdens  on  some,  and  very 
great  burdens  on  others.  Short  terms,  poor  teach- 
ers, poor  buildings,  poor  schools,  and  high  tax  rates 
come  to  mark  one  locality,  while  excellent  schools  on 
a  medium  rate  mark  others.^    What  one  community 

*  Not  infrequently  we  also  find  a  low  tax  rate,  and  relatively  poor 
schools  in  districts  which  can  well  afford  to  raise  more  money,  but  the 
district  spirit  and  tradition  are  such  that  the  trustees  and  the  people 
will  not  do  so  until  compelled  to  by  law.  This  is  considered  further 
in  the  next  chapter. 


What     the    maxi- 

District 

Assessed 

mum  taxof  65ct8. 

Valuation 

on  the  $100  would 

produce 

1 

$71,035 

$462 

2 

43,095 

280 

3 

16,410 

106 

4 

22,847 

149 

5 

127,440 

838 

6 

37,160 

240 

7 

26,246 

171 

8 

45,275 

498 

0 

28,168 

182 

10 

22.424 

149 

11 

61,215 

332 

12 

87,185 

666 

13 

32,450 

210 

14 

17,216 

112 

15 

21.005 

"    137 

ORGANIZATION  AND   MAINTENANCE      197 

can  do  with  ease,  another  finds  impossible  even  to 
attempt.  Yet  children  grow  up  in  each,  and  are  in 
need  of  about  the  same  educational  opportunities  and 
advantages. 

2.  Town  or  Township  Taxation 

This  marks  a  slightly  larger  conception  of  the  need 
and  purpose  of  education  than  does  district  taxation, 
as  here  all  the  people  of  the  township  agree  to  pool 
their  efforts  for  the  maintenance  of  a  system  of  schools 
for  the  town  or  township.  A  number  of  states  have 
advanced  to  this  conception,  and  have  substituted  for 
the  district  the  town  or  the  township  unit  in  the  matter 
of  school  support.  The  schools  maintained  become 
town  or  township  schools  instead  of  district  schools, 
just  as  the  schools  of  a  city  are  city  schools  rather  than 
ward  schools. 

Town  and  township  inequalities.  While  this  plan  is 
a  distinct  advance  over  district  taxation,  because  the 
unit  for  support  and  the  educational  consciousness  ex- 
pressed are  both  larger,  as  a  plan  it  is  open  to  much 
the  same  objections  as  the  district  unit  of  taxation.  As 
a  supplement  to  some  larger  unit  for  general  taxation 
it  is  very  useful,  but  as  the  sole  or  even  the  chief  unit 
for  school  taxation,  it  is  so  small  that  any  serious  at- 
tempt at  the  equalization  of  either  the  burdens  or  the 
advantages  of  education  is  impossible  under  it.  Ex- 
cellent school  systems  will  be  found  in  certain  towns 
and  townships,  while  in  others,  often  adjoining,  very 


198  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

poor  schools  must  continue  to  exist,  and  often  with  no 
visible  hope  of  improvement.  Within  the  town  or 
township  there  is  a  desirable  equalization  of  tax  rates 
and  opportunities  for  education,  the  wealthier  por- 
tions helping  the  poorer  portions  to  maintain  a  uni- 
formly good  system  for  the  common  good  of  all;  but 
as  between  town  and  town,  or  township  and  township, 
there  is  no  equalization  whatever.  The  differences 
become  especially  marked  when  applied  to  pairs  of 
towns  or  townships,  located  in  dififerent  portions  of  a 
state.^ 

3.  County  Taxation 

The  next  step  in  the  evolution  of  a  broader  con- 
ception of  the  need  and  purpose  of  public  education, 
though  not  necessarily  the  next  step  historically,  is 
when  the  people  of  a  county  agree  to  pool  their  educa- 
tional efforts,  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  maintain  all  of  the 
schools  of  their  county,  the  wealthier  districts  or  towns 
or  townships  helping  the  poorer  ones  to  maintain  a 
good  system  of  schools,  now  believed  to  be  for  the  gen- 
eral good  of  the  county  as  a  whole.  General  county 
taxation  for  education  represents  a  marked  advance  in 
the  equalization  of  both  the  advantages  and  the  bur- 
dens of  education  over  district  or  even  town  or  town- 
ship taxation.  This  plan  of  cooperation  for  the  sup- 
port of  schools  is  common  throughout  the  West  and 

^  As,  for  example,  eastern  and  western  Massachusetts,  or  northern 
and  southern  Indiana  or  Illinois. 


ORGANIZATION  AND  MAINTENANCE      199 

South,  but  is  not  found  in  the  North  Atlantic,  and 
scarcely  in  the  North  Central  group  of  states.  It  re- 
suits  in  the  maintenance  of  good  county  systems  of 
schools,  as  opposed  to  district  or  town  systems,  and  in 
the  equalization  of  tax  rates  throughout  the  county, 
thus  enabling  many  a  poor  district  to  provide  a  much 
better  school  than  could  be  done  under  a  system  of 
district  taxation.  Under  a  county  system  of  school 
administration,  as  described  in  chapters  xiii  and  xiv, 
a  county  school  tax  attains  its  greatest  usefulness. 

Equalizing  effect  of  a  county  school  tax.  A  statisti- 
cal study  of  the  district  valuations  and  tax  rates  in  any 
county  in  any  state  will  at  once  reveal  the  equalizing 
effect  of  a  county  system  of  taxation,  as  opposed  to 
district  or  even  town  or  township  taxation.  Instead  of 
extremes  of  one  to  two  mills  for  good  schools  at  one  end, 
and  twelve  to  fifteen  mills  for  short  and  often  poor 
schools  at  the  other,  a  general  county  tax  of  three  to 
four  mills  will  provide  good  schools  for  all,  and  with- 
out unduly  increasing  the  burden  of  support  on  any 
one.  The  main  reason  why  California,  for  example, 
has  uniformly  good  rural  and  village  schools  through- 
out the  whole  state,  —  in  the  mountains,  in  the  val- 
leys, on  the  fruit  farms,  on  the  edge  of  the  desert,  and 
near  the  cities,  —  with  good  teachers  and  good  sala- 
ries everywhere,  is  that  state  and  county  taxation  are 
relied  upon  to  maintain  the  rural  schools,  district  taxa- 
tion being  seldom  resorted  to  except  for  building  pur- 
poses. While  the  district-unit  form  of  organization  is 


200  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

still  retained,  in  a  limited  form,  a  series  of  county  school- 
systems  has  been  created,  as  opposed  to  district  school- 
systems. 

^.  State  Taxation 

A  still  further  step  in  the  evolution  of  a  broader  con- 
ception of  the  need  and  purpose  of  a  system  of  public 
education  is  taken  when  the  people  of  a  whole  state 
agree  to  pool  their  efforts,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  the 
maintenance  of  what  the  people  of  the  whole  state 
have  come  to  recognize  as  for  the  common  good  of  all, 
the  wealthier  counties  and  cities  helping  the  poorer 
ones  to  carry  the  burden  of  maintaining  the  better 
quality  of  schools  now  required  of  all  and  for  the 
common  good  of  all.  In  the  present  age  of  railways, 
trolleys,  power  lines,  mines,  manufacturing  establish- 
ments, and  large  corporations,  the  need  of  some  form 
of  general  taxation,  in  part  to  overcome  the  unequal 
distribution  of  wealth,  will  be  apparent. 

The  great  equalizing  effect  of  a  substantial  general 
state  tax,  or  appropriation  from  corporate  revenue, 
and  especially  if  coupled  with  a  system  of  distribu- 
tion which  places  an  emphasis  on  units  of  cost  and 
effort  and  need,  will  be  evident  if  the  reader  considers 
the  conditions  in  his  own  state.  Nowhere  is  wealth 
even  approximately  evenly  distributed,  yet  every- 
where future  citizens  of  the  state  are  in  need  of  train- 
ing and  guidance.  The  best  schools  of  to-day  are  in  the 
cities,  and  partly  because  the  cities  can  do  with  ease 
what  rural  communities  cannot  even  attempt.  Rural 


ORGANIZATION  AND   MAINTENANCE      201 

taxpayers  probably  pay  more  than  an  average  rate  for 
education  to-day,  as  the  burden  of  support  is  much 
greater  when  six  or  eight  taxpayers  maintain  a  $600 
school  than  when  forty  or  sixty  taxpayers  support  a 
$1200  school. 

General  vs.  local  effort.  It  is  from  state  and  county 
taxation,  then,  rather  than  from  local  effort,  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  necessary  funds  with  which  to  main- 
tain the  type  of  school  needed  ought,  in  the  future,  to 
be  derived.  From  $900  to  $1500  a  year  ought  to  be 
spent  on  the  maintenance  of  a  rural  school,  and  this 
amount,  or  any  great  portion  of  it,  is  too  large  to  be 
expected  from  district  taxation.  Many  districts  can- 
not to-day  produce  even  one  fourth  of  such  a  sum, 
and  short  terms,  third-grade  certificates,  poor  teachers, 
and  weak  schools  are  the  inevitable  results  of  the  at- 
tempt to  make  each  district  pay  its  own  way.  It  is 
only  by  a  state-  and  county- wide  pooling  of  effort,  sup- 
plemented by  local  taxation  for  buildings  and  extra 
advantages,  that  good  schools  can  be  maintained  uni- 
formly throughout  a  state. 

Systems  of  distribution.  After  adequate  taxation 
has  been  provided  for,  a  wise  system  for  it^  distribu- 
tion needs  next  to  be  devised.  To  apportion  money  to 
school  districts  on  the  basis  of  the  number  of  children 
reported  as  between  certain  ages  (school  census),  and 
without  regard  to  local  needs  or  educational  efforts 
made,  is  almost  the  poorest  plan  that  could  be  devised. 
The  real  unit  of  cost  in  the  maintenance  of  a  school, 


202  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

whether  it  have  10,  20,  30,  40,  or  50  children,  is  the 
teacher  needed  to  teach  the  children,  and  the  chief 
items  which  should  interest  the  state  in  the  apportion- 
ment of  its  funds,  after  the  unit  of  cost  for  the  teacher 
has  been  set  aside,  are  length  of  term  and  average  daily 
attendance.  In  California,  where  an  eight-months 
school  is  required  of  all  districts,  and  where  one  of  the 
best  plans  for  taxation  and  apportionment  to  be  found 
in  any  state  is  in  use,  $750  is  first  set  aside  by  the 
county  superintendent  for  each  teacher,  and  the  re- 
mainder, which  is  somewhere  near  $10  per  child  per 
year,  is  then  apportioned  to  the  districts  on  the  basis 
of  their  average  daily  attendance  the  preceding  year. 
Such  a  plan  for  distributing  the  taxes  raised,  supple- 
mented by  a  small  reserve  fund,  for  use  in  helping 
those  communities  which  have  raised  a  certain  high 
rate  of  local  tax  and  still  cannot  meet  the  minimum 
demands  of  the  state,  as  is  done  in  Indiana  and  Mis- 
souri, will  come  about  as  near  placing  a  premium  on 
every  desirable  effort  which  communities  should  be 
encouraged  and  forced  to  make  as  any  which  can  be 
devised.  If  sufficient  general  taxation,  state  and 
county,  is  provided,  good  schools  are  possible  through- 
out a  whole  state,  and  some  such  plan  as  is  indicated 
above  for  the  distribution  of  the  funds  will  come  as 
near  to  an  equalization  of  both  the  burdens  and  the 
opportunities  of  education  throughout  the  state  as  it 
is  desirable  to  do.^ 

*  For  a  much  more  detailed  consideration  of  this  subject,  see  the 


ORGANIZATION   AND   MAINTENANCE      203 

Fundamental  needs  for  rural-school  progress.  The 
substitution  of  some  larger  unit  for  school  manage- 
ment than  the  district,  adequate  financing,  and  a  wise 
system  for  the  apportionment  of  the  proceeds  of 
taxation,  lie  at  the  basis  of  any  marked  improvement 
in  the  educational  conditions  surrounding  out  rural 
schools.  There  must  be,  in  most  of  our  states,  a  doub- 
ling of  funds  and  a  wiser  distribution  of  the  funds 
which  are  raised,  if  anything  approaching  satisfactory 
results  are  to  be  obtained.  The  attempt  to  conduct 
rural  schools  on  a  mere  fraction  of  what  the  cities  spend 
for  similar  educational  advantages  will  never  give  good 
results.  More  money  for  education  is  an  absolute 
essential,  and  until  this  can  be  obtained,  either  from 
larger  local  or  general  taxation,  or  both,  or  from  some 
form  of  reorganization  of  rural  education  which  will 
make  better  use  of  the  funds  now  at  hand,  no  very 
satisfactory  results  in  providing  the  kind  of  rural  edu- 
cation needed  can  be  expected.  Until  one  or  the  other, 
or  both,  of  these  desirable  results  can  be  obtained, 
which  may  take  time  in  certain  states,  the  best  that 
can  be  done  is  to  see  that  the  districts  provide  as  much 
money  as  they  can  afford,  and  then  spend  it  as  wisely 
as  possible. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  emphasized  organization  and 
financial  support,  because  both  are  of  such  fundamen- 
tal importance  in  dealing  with  the  rural-school  prob- 

author's  School  Funds  and  their  Apportionment,  Tr.  Col.  Contrib. 
to  Educ,  no.  2.    New  York,  1906. 


204  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

lem.  In  succeeding  chapters  we  shall  point  out  how 
larger  sums  can  be  advantageously  spent  in  the  im- 
provement of  the  rural  and  village  schools,  and,  still 
more  important,  how,  by  a  reorganization  of  rural 
education,  a  much  better  system  of  organization  and 
finance  could  be  provided. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  form  of  school  organization  is  in  use  in  your  state? 

2.  If  the  district  system,  what  are  the  chief  powers  of  the  district 
officers?  Is  it  a  strong  or  a  weak  district  system? 

3.  How  may  new  districts  be  created? 

4.  What  has  been  the  chief  curtailment  of  the  powers  of  the  dis- 
trict in  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  in  your  state? 

5.  Are  there  parts  of  your  state  in  which  the  district  system  is  still 
a  necessity? 

6.  If  your  state  has  the  township  or  the  county  system,  does  the 
sub-district  system  exist?  If  so,  is  it  so  managed  as  to  be  a  point 
of  strength  or  weakness? 

7.  Are  the  district-school  authorities  in  your  county  liberal,  fair, 
or  penurious  in  the  matter  of  school  expenses? 

8.  How  many  school  officers  are  there  in  your  county? 

9.  Suppose  the  county  unit  of  organization  were  to  be  applied  to 
your  county,  what  advantages  in  it  can  you  see? 

10.  What  plan  for  the  support  of  its  schools  does  your  state  employ? 

11.  What  are  the  sources  of  school  moneys  in  your  county,  township, 
or  district?  What  percentage  comes  from  each  source?  What 
sources  are  increasing  or  decreasing? 

12.  Are  the  schools  of  your  state,  from  a  financial  point  of  view, 
state  schools,  county  schools,  or  district  schools? 

13.  How  have  the  changes  of  half  a  century  "changed  the  whole  face 
of  the  taxation  problem"?    (Page  196.) 

14.  Do  you  know  of  two  school  districts  or  communities,  near  one 
another,  where  the  burdens  vary  greatly? 

15.  What  extremes  of  taxation  exist  among  the  districts  of  your 
township  or  county?   Among  the  counties  of  your  state? 

16.  How  evenly,  or  unevenly,  is  the  wealth  of  your  state  distributed? 
Of  your  county? 


ORGANIZATION   AND   MAINTENANCE      205 

17.  How  are  the  proceeds  of  taxation  for  education,  and  the  income 
from  permanent  funds,  apportioned  in  your  state?  In  your 
county? 

18.  Is  the  system  of  apportionment  a  wise  one?  Could  you  suggest 
any  improvements? 

19.  Does  the  apportionment  system  place  a  premium  on  commu- 
nity effort? 

20.  If  the  state  or  county  school  funds  in  your  state  were  doubled, 
or  trebled,  would  that  alone  solve  your  rural-school  problem? 

21.  Is  there  any  financial  premium  placed,  in  your  state,  on  con- 
solidating the  schools?    If  so,  what? 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  TEACHING  EQUIPMENT 

The  need  for  better  equipment.  It  is  of  course  true 
that  an  unusually  capable  teacher  occasionally  accom- 
plishes rather  wonderful  results  under  very  discour- 
aging educational  conditions  and  with  an  almost  en- 
tire absence  of  teaching  equipment.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  also  true  that  hundreds  of  other  teachers, 
who  are  not  unusually  capable,  obtain  only  very  un- 
satisfactory results  in  our  rural  schools  to-day,  and  in 
part  because  of  the  poor  quality  of  the  teaching  equip- 
ment provided.  Despite  our  recent  advances  our  rural 
and  village  schools  are  still  greatly  inferior  to  city 
schools  in  this  respect,  and  one  of  their  needs  which 
must  be  supplied,  if  they  are  to  be  redirected  and  made 
educationally  efficient,  is  that  they  be  given  buildings 
and  teaching  equipment  adequate  for  doing  what  it 
may  reasonably  be  expected  rural  and  village  schools 
ought  to  do.  As  the  provision  of  improved  teaching 
equipment  for  our  rural  schools  may  be  said  to  be  al- 
most a  prerequisite  to  rural  educational  progress,  we 
wish  to  devote  this  chapter  to  a  consideration  of  such 
needs,  conceiving  teaching  equipment  to  mean  build- 
ing, site,  teaching  apparatus  and  material,  and  library 
facilities. 


THE  TEACHING  EQUIPMENT  207 

1.  The  Building 

In  the  old  days  of  rural  and  village  education,  when 
instruction  was  confined  chiefly  to  the  three  Rs,  the 
main  equipment  need  was  for  a  building  where  the 
teacher  and  pupils  could  meet  together  for  study  and 
recitation.  Almost  any  kind  of  a  building  would  do, 
so  long  as  it  had  benches  and  could  be  kept  warm.  The 
log  schoolhouse  of  the  East  and  the  South,  and  the  sod 
schoolhouse  of  the  prairie  states,  alike  answered  these 
early  educational  needs.  The  weather-boarded  rec- 
tangular boxes,  with  a  door  at  one  end  and  a  chimney 
at  the  other,  three  evenly  spaced  windows  on  each  side, 
the  whole  somewhat  resembling  a  box  car  in  appear- 
ance, were  the  successors  of  these  early  schoolhouses. 
Still  later,  brick  took  the  place  of  timber,  but  the  style 
of  house  remained  the  same. 

The  tjrpe.  Thousands  upon  thousands  of  such  little 
district  schoolhouses  were  built  all  over  the  United 
States,  and  are  being  built  to-day.  The  interiors  were 
everywhere  the  same.  A  teacher's  desk  at  one  end;  an 
unjacketed  stove  in  the  middle;  blackboards  around 
the  walls;  sometimes  single,  but  usually  double  school 
desks  in  the  room;  a  manikin  or  a  planetarium,  bought 
by  some  trustee  on  whom  they  had  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion; perhaps  a  globe,  or  a  map  case;  a  few  books;  and 
a  water  pail;  —  these  constituted  the  usual  material 
equipment.  The  interior  was  severely  plain;  the  ex- 
terior was  crude  and  unattractive;  the  site,  usually  a 


208 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION" 


:  [ 


]  c 


corner  by  the  wayside,  was  bare  and  unimproved.  Once 
created,  the  type  has  persisted,  and  thousands  of  such 
schools  still  exist  in  almost  every  agricultural  state  in 
the  Union.  Only  very  recently  have  we  seen  the  begin- 
nings of  any  improve- 
ment in  the  type. 

Why  they  persist. 
Such  school  buildings 
once  answered  the 
needs  of  education 
fairly  well,  and  it  is 
hard  for  district  trus- 
tees to  see  the  need  of 
anything  better  to-day. 
Because  they  them- 
selves received  their 
early  education  in  such 
a  temple  of  learning, 
they  cannot  under- 
stand why  it  is  not  good  enough  for  their  chil- 
dren. The  farmers  who  do  understand  lease  their 
farms  to  tenants  and  move  to  town,  to  secure  better 
educational  advantages  for  their  children.  In  many 
rural  communities  this  process  has  been  going  on  for  so 
long  that  it  has  selected  out  and  drained  off  all  who 
would  have  stood  for  better  conditions,  leaving  behind 
an  unprogressive  rural  population,  to  whom  almost 
any  kind  of  a  school  or  school  building  is  good  enough. 
A  common  condition.  Despite  recent  improvements. 


Fio.  47,    A  TYPICAL  PRESENT-DAY 
INTERIOR 


THE  TEACHING   EQUffMENT 


209 


Fio.  48.    A  TYPICAL  WEATHER-BOARDED 
BOX 


the  rural  school  building  of  to-day  is  too  often  an  ugly 
and  an  unsanitary  box,  cheap  in  its  construction, 
often  in  a  poor  state  of  repair,  and  with  no  facilities 
for  instruction  worth  mentioning.  The  room  is  merely 
a  meeting-place  for  hearing  lessons  in  the  old  book 
subjects.  The  room  is  unattractive,  often  dingy  and 
forlorn,  with  no- 
thing about  it  to 
awaken  any  of  the 
finer  human  feel- 
ings. When  the 
hard  white  plas- 
ter walls  have  be- 
come so  dirty  that 
the  teacher  is  al- 
most in  rebellion  over  them,  instead  of  tinting  them  with 
good  soft  colors,  the  best  that  the  average  trustee  knows 
is  to  cover  them  with  that  most  unsanitary  of  coverings, 
known  as  wall-paper.  In  its  unsanitary  possibiUties  it 
is  a  fit  accompaniment  of  the  common  drinking-pail. 
Usually,  too,  the  pattern  selected  is  loud  and  gaudy  in 
color.  The  exterior  is  frequently  a  picture  of  dilapida- 
tion, and  its  outhouses  are  often  filthy  and  lacking  in 
privacy.  Many  rural  school  buildings  are  of  such  a 
nature  that  the  development  of  artistic  tastes  is  impos- 
sible in  them,  and  many  are  positively  immoral  in  their 
influence  on  the  young.  The  lack  of  respect  shown  for 
such  public  property,  as  evidenced  by  broken  windows 
and  weather-boarding,  the  marking  of  walls,  and  the 


210 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


presence  of  shutters  for  protection,  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at. 

Limitations  to  instruction.  A  school,  if  it  is  to  be 
vital  and  to  exercise  much  influence,  must  relate  itself 
to,  and  in  a  large  part  express,  the  needs  of  the  com- 


Fio.  49.  A  MORE  ATTRACTIVE  EXTERIOR 


munity  of  which  it  forms  a  part.  It  should  be  a  com- 
munity institution,  adapted  to  the  peculiar  needs  of 
that  community.  There  is  nothing  about  the  usual 
rural  school  building  to  suggest  that  such  an  idea  was 
in  any  one's  mind  during  its  construction  and  equip- 
ment, and  it  is  with  difl^culty  that  it  can  be  adapted  to 
such  a  purpose.  In  rural  schools  in  agricultural  com- 
munities, instruction  in  agriculture  and  in  the  needs  of 
agricultural  life  should  permeate  the  school  and  its 
work.  Such  would  give  vitality  to  the  work  of  the 
school  and  make  it  attractive  to  the  children  of  coun- 
try people.  The  conditions  which  surround  the  dis- 
trict school,  as  it  is  usually  found,  are  not  such  as  to  be 


THE   TEACHING   EQUIPMENT 


211 


favorable  to  such  instruction.  For  good  work  in  such 
subjects  something  more  is  needed  in  teaching  equip- 
ment than  the  usual  rectangular  box.  Neither  the 
building  nor  the 
site  is  arranged 
for  working  pur- 
poses, and  in  most 
rural  schools  lit- 
tle beyond  book- 
work  instruction 
is  possible. 

The  cheap 
building.  The 
usual  rural  school- 
building  is  built 
entirely  too 
cheaply,  and  no 
attempt  is  made 
to  make  it  attrac- 
tive or  sanitary,  or 
to  provide  it  with 
the  necessary  fa- 
cilities for  wholesome  school  life  and  good  instruc- 
tion. The  needs  of  the  past,  rather  than  of  the 
present  or  the  future,  have  decided  its  plan.  Its  cost 
has  been  very  small,  and  the  idea  of  the  school-dis- 
trict authorities  too  often  seems  to  be  to  provide  as 
little  as  possible,  and  to  provide  this  little  as  cheaply  as 
can  be  done.  No  basement  is  provided;  the  attic  is  un- 


□  □ 

□  nn  an 

□  an  □□ 
n  n  □  □□ 

□  n  □  □□ 

□  n  □  □□ 
1   I       I 


Fio.  50.     A   REARRANGED  INTERIOR 

Remodeled  along  good  educational  and  hygienic 
lines,  and  new  equipment  and  some  conveniences 
added.  The  three  windows  on  the  left  have  been 
made  into  doors,  and  the  frames  and  sash  moved  to 
the  right  side.    Compare  with  Fig.  47. 


212  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

used;  no  cloak  or  other  rooms  are  divided  off;  the  heat- 
ing and  ventilation  are  primitive,  or  at  best  only  as 
good  as  the  law  compels;  the  lighting  is  bad;  no  plumb- 
ing or  artificial  lighting  fixtures  are  installed ;  picture 
molding  is  omitted;  the  walls  are  left  untinted;  and  the 
woodwork  and  floor  finish  are  cheaply  done.  From 
$600  to  $1000  has  been  a  common  cost  for  such  schools, 
while  perhaps  $2500  represents  the  cost  for  the  best  of 
the  type  to-day.  No  wonder  so  many  rural  homes  are 
poor  and  inhospitable,  when  the  owners  have  been  edu- 
cated to  nothing  better  by  the  school.  Once  provided, 
repairs  and  additions  are  usually  made  by  the  district 
authorities  only  after  much  pressure  has  been  applied. 
The  cities,  on  the  other  hand,  spend  from  $4000  to 
$9000  for  each  classroom  provided,  with  between 
$5000  and  $7000  as  a  common  cost,  and  in  such  build- 
ings one  finds  not  only  the  best  of  heating,  lighting, 
and  sanitary  arrangements,  but  assembly  hall,  library, 
science  room,  rooms  for  manual  training  and  domestic 
science,  and  closets  and  rooms  for  the  storage  of  school 
supplies  as  well.  In  such  places  the  conditions  favor 
excellent  instruction  and  the  formation  of  good  tastes, 
while  in  the  average  rural  building  the  conditions  do 
not. 

Fundamental  needs  in  a  school  building.  In  many 
rural  districts  there  are  no  reasons,  other  than  the  par- 
simony and  the  short-sightedness  of  the  district-school 
authorities,  for  a  continuance  of  these  poor  educational 
conditions.  Old   buildings   should   be   remodeled  to 


^THE   TEACHING   EQUIPMENT  213 

adapt  them  better  to  modern  educational  needs,  and 
when  new  ones  are  constructed  they  should  be  of  a 
dififerent  type.  There  is  much  need,  in  many  of  our 
states,  for  some  state  or  county  oversight  of  all  repairs 
and  new  construction,  with  a  view  to  compelling  the 
district  authorities  to  erect  buildings  of  a  type  called 


Fio.51.    A  SUGGESTED  EXTERIOR  FOR  THE  SCHOOLHOUSB  ON 
PAGE  214 

for  by  modern  educational  conditions  and  needs. 
Cloak-  and  hat-rooms,  separate  from  the  main  school- 
room, should  be  supplied.  The  central  unjacketed 
stove  should  disappear,  and,  where  at  all  feasible,  a 
basement  furnace  should  be  installed.  The  walls  should 
be  tinted,  and  a  few  good,  well-framed  pictures  should 
adorn  them.  A  good  water  supply  should  be  provided, 
and,  by  means  of  a  pressure  tank  or  a  wind,  gaso- 
line, or  electric  motor,  water  under  pressure  should  be 


214  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

—|p=ac:=  ■       ■       ■    ,     ■= 

iff    oD°D°D-°D°n'^n°D 

eQoQcioQoncr^i] 
^.oQoQoaoactici'^D 

.□oGoQoQonoQoQ 


^rvT^.^ 


GEOUSnFl.OOB  Pl-AS 


BaSEMUJSI  KUOi 


FiO~iB2.    A  MODEL  INTERIOR  FOR  A  ONE-TEACHER  RURAL 

SCHOOLHOUSE 
Still  another  and  a  better  plan  would  be  to  use  the  attic  for  the  manual  training 
•nd  domestic  science  and  the  basement  for  the  gj'ranasiura.  See  Figs.  72,  73,  ana 
74  for  such  a  plan.  A  curtain  or  slatted  door  can  be  used  to  close  off  the  plant 
room,  if  the  liglit  is  too  bright.  Lavatory  rooms  for  both  boya  and  girls  contain 
driukuig  fouataius,  wash  basins,  and  toilets. 


THE  TEACHING  EQUIPMENT 


215 


supplied  for  lavatories,  toilets,  and  drinking  fountains 
within  the  building.  With  a  coil  of  pipe  in  the  furnace 
and  a  hot-water  boiler,  such  as  is  used  in  a  kitchen, 
attached,  an  economical  supply  of  hot  water  can  be 
had  in  winter  for  the  lavatories. 

Figures  52,  53,  54,  72,  and  73  give  types  of  what 
might  be  provided,  and  at  no  great  expense.  Figure  53 


CI 

BSanual  Training 


ICaWne^ 


?^ 

pi 

A^culture 


Domestic  Science 


cnnmrnrnD 
DnDmmma 
Dmmmmn 
DQDmmma 


[frablnotl 


Tia.  53.    THE  MODEL  RURAL-SCHOOL  BUILDINQ  AT 
MAYVILLE,  NORTH   DAKOTA 

The  especial  feature  here  is  the  main-floor  arrangement,  rooms 
being  provided  for  special  work  in  agriculture,  domestic  science, 
and  manual  training.  The  basement,  to  which  the  stairs  lead, 
is  used  for  furnace,  playroom,  and  water  storage  for  the  school. 
In  such  a  building  the  best  of  a  modem  rural-school  curriculum 
can  be  taught.  (From  Woof  ter's  Teaching  in  Eural  Schoolt,  p.  42.) 


•Lg___gj* 


Fio.  54.     A   DESIRABLE  TYPE  OF  RURAL-SCHOOL  BUILDING 
The  floor  plan  shosvs  how  such  a  builJinR  jirovided  for  instruction  in  science 
and  the  practical  arts,  as  well  as  book  studies.  Two  types  of  exterior  for  the  same 
classroom  are  shown. 

(From  Showalter'B  Handbook  Jur  Rural  School  Officers,  p.  61.) 


THE  TEACHING  EQUIPMENT  215i 

would  be  comparatively  inexpensive,  and  represents 
a  very  desirable  type  of  one-room  rural-school  build- 
ing. Figure  54  makes  about  the  same  provision  for 
rooms  for  desirable  special  instruction,  and  utilizes 
the  basement  as  well.  Such  school  buildings  also, 
with  the  provision  made  for  washrooms  and  toilets, 
are  certain  to  have  their  influence  later  on  in  devel- 
oping a  demand  for  better  rural  homes. 

Library,  science,  and  work  rooms.  A  library  room 
should  be  attached,  as  should  also  a  collection  and 
science  room.  Both  are  provided  for  in  the  remodel- 
ing shown  in  Figure  50.  In  Figure  52  a  library  room 
is  omitted,  but  cases  are  provided  for  books.  The  case 
and  table  in  the  back  corner  are  for  specimens,  while 
the  front  corner  is  for  flowers,  plants,  and  growing 
material.  The  basement  forms  an  admirable  scientific 
work  room.  Such  rooms  will  prove  to  be  very  impor- 
tant additions  for  every  rural  school.  In  the  science 
or  work  room  should  be  kept  the  teaching  collections 
and  illustrative  material  of  the  school.  These  should 
include  scientific  specimens,  agricultural  specimens 
and  implements,  cooking  specimens  and  implements, 
pattern  and  sewing  materials,  models  of  all  kinds,  illus- 
trative pictures  and  plans,  and  trophies  won.  Tables 
with  benches  or  stools  should  be  placed  in  such  a  room 
instead  of  desks.  Such  a  room,  connected  with  any 
rural  or  village  school,  would  be  a  constant  challenge 
to  teacher,  pupils,  and  parents,  and  would  do  much 
to  stimulate  intellectual  activity  along  nature  study, 
agricultural,  and  home-keeping  lines.  In  the  basement 


216 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


or  in  the  attic,  teaching  equipment  for  instruction  in 
manual  training,  domestic  science,  and  sewing  should 
also  be  provided.  Figures  47  and  50  show  how  old 
buildings  may  be  remodeled,  and  Figures  52,  53,  and 
54  the  lines  along  which  new  ones  should  be  built.  In 
chapter  xiv  a  fairly  good  type  of  one-teacher  rural- 
school  building  is  pictured,  and  the  floor  plans  shown. 
In  the  chapter  following  this  one  a  number  of  modern 
buildings  for  schools  having  more  than  one  teacher  are 
pictured,  and  their  floor  plans  shown.  It  is  in  such 
newer-type  buildings  that  a  redirected  and  a  revital- 
ized rural  school  becomes  possible. 


2.  The  Site 

Just  as  the  older-type  rural-school   building  is  too 
often  not  adapted  to  modern  educational  needs,  so  too 

often  the  site  on 
which  the  school 
is  located  is  also 
unsuited  to  mod- 
ern instructional 
needs.  Thrift  has 
ever  been  a  rural 
virtue,  and  rural 
schools  have  usu- 
ally been  located 

Fio.  54a.     AN   OmO   SCHOOL  SITE 
Fronting  ou  a  railroad  track,  and  twenty  feet  from    OU     Small     COmCrS 
a  hog-chute  and  pen.  (From  a  picture  by  Graham.)  .  i  .    i 

or  land  which  were 
not  useful  for  any  other  purpose.  When  rural  learning 
was  all  book  learning,  such  sites  suflBced  fairly  well,  but 


j,fetmiiii(tiiiiv',iuiiniiilii 


THE   TEACfflNG   EQUIPMENT  217 

a  rural  school  of  the  type  we  now  need  can  no  longer 
use  such  a  site.  A  rocky  hillside,  bleak  and  wind-swept; 
a  streak  of  clayey  soil,  where  nothing  can  be  raised;  a 
piece  of  low-lying  ground,  where  the  drainage  is  poor; 
a  corner  by  the  wayside,  neglected  and  forlorn;  or  a 
small  lot  bounded  by  a  highroad  or  a  railroad;  — 
these  have  been  choice  spots  which  rural  thrift  has 
dedicated  to  the  cause  of  learning.  Small  in  size,  un- 
fenced,  often  unsanitary,  bare  of  trees  or  adornment, 
and  wholly  unattractive,  describes  many  a  school- 
house  site.  Such  sites  will  not  meet  modern  needs,  and 
the  sooner  they  are  abandoned  the  better  it  will  be  for 
the  rural  school. 

The  site  for  instruction  purposes.  Laboratory  in- 
struction for  rural-life  needs — that  is,  out-of-door  in- 
struction in  nature  study  and  agricultural  subjects  — 
ought  to  form  an  important  part  of  the  work  of  our 
rural  schools.  For  this  good  land  is  needed,  with  good 
drainage  and  a  good  subsoil.  The  school  site  should 
be  used  for  school  gardens,  experimental  plats,  group- 
ing of  trees  and  shrubs,  and  for  the  study  of  the  wild 
life  of  the  neighborhood,  as  well  as  for  a  building  site 
and  a  playground.  An  important  part  of  the  work  of 
the  rural  school  should  be  work  out  of  doors.  Our 
school  work  is  altogether  too  formal  and  bookish,  and 
the  farm  child  has  too  often  grown  up,  at  least  so  far 
as  the  school  could  direct  his  training,  a  stranger  to 
the  life  of  nature  about  him. 

The  site  and  ©sthetic  training.  The  school  site,  too. 


218  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

should  be  toade  to  contribute  to  moral  and  aesthetic 
training,  as  well  as  to  intellectual  and  physical  educa- 
tion. Walks  and  drives  should  be  laid  out,  and  grass 
and  long-lived  shade  trees  planted.  Playgrounds,  with 
facilities  for  gymnastic  work  and  games,  should  be 
provided.  Where  possible,  beds  of  flowers,  climbing 
vines,  bulbs,  shrubs,  and  roses  should  be  added  for 
the  education  of  the  children  and  the  adornment  of 
the  grounds.  Bird  houses  should  be  made  and  placed. 
By  a  little  effort  and  judgment  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher  much  can  be  done  in  this  direction,  though  the 
common  lack  of  a  water  supply  and  the  long  summer 
vacation  naturally  interfere  greatly  with  such  artistic 
development.  Still  such  difficulties  are  not  insur- 
mountable. Where  rural  schools  have  been  consoli- 
dated and  a  central  school  provided,  with  running 
water  and  janitor  service,  many  things  then  become 
easily  possible  which  are  difficult  for  the  little  district 
"schools. 

3.  The  Teacher's  Home 

In  all  efforts  to  build  up  an  efficient  rural  school  the 
teacher  must  not  be  forgotten.  All  recent  studies  have 
revealed  the  lack  of  training,  immaturity,  and  short 
tenure  of  rural  teachers.  In  part  the  short  tenure  is 
due  to  the  unwillingness  of  young  teachers  to  put  up 
with  the  kind  of  living  conditions  they  have  to  put  up 
with  in  thousands  of  country  districts.  After  a  year  or 
two  they  either  go  to  town  to  teach  or  change  to  some 


THE  TEACHING   EQUIPMENT  218a 

other  work.  No  small  part  of  the  inefficiency  of  rural 
schools  to-day  is  due  to  the  unsatisfactory  and  often 
almost  impossible  living  conditions  which  rural  teach- 
ers are  called  upon  to  put  up  with.  Only  as  we  create 
conditions  which  will  attract  well-qualified  teachers  to 
rural  service  can  we  hope  materially  to  improve  the 
rural  school. 

To  a  girl  who  has  become  used  to  a  quiet  room,  bath- 
room facilities,  hot  and  cold  water,  privacy,  and  an 
attractive  dining  room  while  studying  to  become  a 
teacher,  the  lack  of  all  these  things  and  the  irregular- 
ity of  life  of  the  farmer's  home  make  teaching  in  the 
country  almost  an  impossibility.  School  authorities 
are  finding  more  and  more  every  year  that  they  must 
provide  suitable  living  accommodations  for  the  teacher 
if  they  are  to  attract  the  type  of  teacher  needed  by 
the  rural  school. 

The  "  Teacherage."  This  has  been  done  in  many 
places  by  the  erection  of  "Teacherages,"  or  homes  for 
teachers,  on  the  school  grounds.  Sometimes,  in  erect- 
ing a  new  building,  the  old  one-room  building  has 
been  rebuilt  into  a  teacher's  home;  sometimes  a  new 
bungalow-type  of  cottage  has  been  erected.  The  State 
of  Washington  has  been  prominent  in  this  work,  though 
the  movement  has  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  United 
States.  The  drawing  and  holding  power  of  a  "Teach- 
erage" is  a  big  asset  to  any  type  of  rural  school; 
a  consolidated  rural  school  ought  by  all  means  to 
be  provided  with  such  an  addition  to  its  equipment. 


218i         RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

Figure  55  given  above,  shows   the  floor   plan,  front 
elevation,  and  one  wall  of  the  living  room  of  a  Teach- 


|o1    t5|  pi    lo 


Fia.  65.   A  "TEACHERAGE"  FOR  TWO  TEACHERS 

(From  Showalter's  Handbook  for  Rural  School  Officers,  p.  55.) 

erage  planned  for  two  teachers,  or  a  teacher  and  his 
family. 

^.   Teaching  Equipments 

In  teaching  equipment  the  district  schools,  too,  are 
much  behind  city  schools,  and  often  such  teaching 
equipment  as  does  exist  is  in  large  part  unsuited  to  the 
needs  of  the  rural  school.  District  trustees  have  for 
long  been  an  easy  mark  for  the  apparatus  agent,  and 
they  have  usually  purchased  as  liberally  as  their  very 
limited  funds  allowed.  Their  purchases,  though,  have 
frequently  borne  little  reference  to  real  educational 


THE   TEACHING   EQUIPMENT  219 

needs,  and  the  advice  of  the  teacher  and  the  superin- 
tendent has  too  frequently  gone  unheeded.  Elaborate 
planetariums,  charts  showing  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion, expensive  relief  and  dissection  maps,  manikins, 
geometrical  blocks,  encyclopaedias,  and  unsuitable 
books  and  pictures,  —  such  as  these  have  been  bought 
by  district  trustees  in  every  state  in  the  Union  where 
they  possessed  the  purchasing  power.  Usually  no 
closet  or  cabinet  has  been  provided  to  keep  them  in, 
with  the  result  that  they  have  soon  become  covered 
with  dust  and  injured  by  being  knocked  about.  In  the 
city,  on  the  other  hand,  such  teaching  equipment  is 
usually  bought  on  the  recommendation  of  the  educa- 
tional authorities,  and  with  a  view  to  meeting  real 
educational  needs.  It  is  also  bought  much  more  in- 
telligently than  is  the  case  with  rural  village  districts, 
is  stored  in  closets  or  apparatus  rooms,  and  is  properly 
cared  for. 

Needed  teaching  apparatus.  The  rural  school,  as 
well  as  the  city  school,  needs  teaching  apparatus. 
Good  blackboards,  good  illustrative  material  for  pri- 
mary work,  a  good  globe,  good  plain  maps,  good 
charts,  a  work-bench  for  constructive  work,  molding 
clay  and  color  material,  simple  illustrative  chemical 
and  physical  apparatus,  supplies  for  nature-study 
work,  bench  tools  and  garden  tools,  a  Babcock  milk- 
tester,  a  number  of  magnifying  glasses  and  a  fairly 
good  microscope,  sand  boards,  germinating  trays, 
flower-pots,  a  glass  aquarium,  plenty  of  good  books. 


220  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

some  playground  equipment  for  individual  and  for 
group  games,  —  these  are  the  important  equipment 
needs  of  the  rural  school  of  to-day.  A  coal  or  gasoline 
stove,  dishes  and  cooking  utensils,  table  equipment,  a 
sewing-machine,  and  a  porte  lumiere  lantern  are  also 
very  desirable  additions  to  the  teaching  equipment, 
and  may  even  be  said  to  be  necessary  if  teaching  of  the 
best  type  is  to  be  done.  For  all  such  equipment  good 
cases  and  closets  should  be  provided,  so  that  it  may  be 
properly  cared  for. 

5.  School  Library 

Plenty  of  good  books,  adapted  to  the  needs  of  in- 
struction, are  a  very  necessary  part  of  the  teaching 
equipment,  —  city,  town,  or  rural.  Nearly  all  schools 
have  a  small  library  fund,  but  it  is  frequently  so  small 
as  to  be  wholly  inadequate.  In  most  states  this  fund  is 
spent  by  the  district  trustee,  and  too  often  according 
to  his  own  sweet  will.  The  writer  has  seen  Gibbon's 
Rome,  Mark  Twain's  works,  Dickens  and  Scott,  Car- 
lyle  and  Emerson,  Macaulay  and  Hume,  and  books  on 
exploration  and  phrenology  in  rural-school  district 
libraries,  these  having  been  purchased  from  the  school 
library  fund  by  some  one  trustee.  The  purchase  of 
such  works  may  be  somewhat  unusual,  and  perhaps 
is  less  common  now  than  was  the  case  a  decade  ago. 
Better  standards  as  to  what  should  be  bought,  and 
greater  oversight  of  the  purchase  by  the  county 
superintendent,  have  recently  done  much  to  prevent 


THE  TEACHING  EQUn>MENT  221 

such  a  waste  of  funds.  After  all,  though,  the  amount 
spent  for  books  is  small,  and  the  selections  by  trustees 
are  often  unwisely  made.  More  supplemental  reading 
books  and  supplemental  textbooks  are  needed,  and 
more  reference  works,  dealing  with  natural  phenomena, 
home  life  and  farm  life,  and  the  application  of  science 
to  modern  life,  should  be  available  for  use  by  rural 
pupils.  Each  school  needs  a  good  working  equipment 
of  books  of  a  kind  adapted  to  its  peculiar  needs.  A 
library  of  250  to  350  well-selected  volumes,  with  cases 
for  additional  pamphlets  and  pictures,  and  with  provi- 
sion for  yearly  additions  and  replacements,  is  not  too 
much  to  expect  for  a  one-teacher  rural  school.  In  addi- 
tion, the  library  of  the  school  should  be  supplemented 
by  traveling  libraries,  sent  out  from  the  oflSce  of  the 
county  superintendent,  or  from  a  county  or  state 
library. 

City  and  country  compared.  It  is  when  we  compare 
the  teaching  equipment  of  the  rural  school  with  that  of 
the  city,  or  even  of  a  good  town  school,  that  the  defi- 
ciencies in  rural  equipment  are  most  apparent.  In 
buildings,  the  average  city  or  town  school  possesses 
very  superior  advantages.  These  buildings  are  usually 
artistic  and  attractive,  well  heated  and  well  lighted, 
equipped  with  all  needed  sanitary  arrangements,  have 
an  assembly  hall  and  a  library  room,  often  a  science 
study  and  lecture  room,  are  well  equipped  with  teach- 
ing apparatus,  and  often  have,  in  addition,  good  play- 
grounds and  attractive  grounds  about  the  school.  With 


222  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  much  larger  salaries  paid,  the  expert  supervision,  and 
the  many  extra  educational  advantages  provided  by  the 
cities,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  they  attract  to 
them  not  only  the  best  teachers,  but  the  children  of 
the  most  far-sighted  parents  as  well.  Until  country 
people  and  their  representatives,  the  district  trustees, 
come  to  see  the  necessity  of  providing  buildings  and 
teaching  equipment  which  is  approximately  as  good, 
it  will  be  a  difficult  matter  materially  to  improve  the 
district  school.  Much  more  money  should  be  put  into 
larger  and  better  arranged  school  buildings,  larger  and 
better  school  sites,  increased  teaching  equipment,  and 
larger  and  better  school  libraries,  as  well  as  into  better 
teachers  and  longer  school  terms. 

Better  equipment  essential.  The  need  for  better 
material  equipment  for  rural-life  education  is  one  of 
the  important  needs  of  to-day,  and  only  small  ad- 
vances can  be  made  in  the  redirection  and  revitalizing 
of  rural  education  until  such  has  been  provided.  The 
cities  spend  four  to  six  times  as  much  per  classroom  for 
school  buildings,  and  twenty  to  thirty  times  as  much 
for  equipment,  as  is  spent  by  the  rural  districts.  They 
also  have  much  larger  and  better  selected  libraries  of 
supplemental  and  general  books,  and  a  city  library  to 
draw  on,  in  addition.  Add  to  these  advantages  the 
fact  that  the  city  teachers,  due  to  superior  professional 
preparation  and  longer  service,  and  to  their  specializa- 
tion by  grades,  are,  as  a  body,  better  capable  of  work- 
ing without  teaching  equipment  than  the  teacher  in 


THE   TEACHING   EQUIPMENT  223 

the  mixed  rural  school,  and  that  in  the  cities  close,  per- 
sonal, and  effective  supervision  takes  the  place  of  the 
annual  or  semiannual  visit  to  the  rural  school  by  the 
county  superintendent,  and  we  can  realize  something 
of  the  heavy  odds  under  which  rural  education  now 
labors.  More  money,  better  equipment,  longer  school 
terms,  and  closer  supervision  are  fundamental  needs 
of  rural  education  to-day. 

Difficulties  in  the  way.  It  is  much  easier,  however, 
to  say  that  the  schoolhouses,  school  sites,  and  teaching 
equipment  for  rural  schools  ought  to  be  improved, 
than  it  is  to  secure  the  money  for  such  improvements. 
In  a  series  of  such  districts  as  those  given  on  page  196 
better  schoolhouses  and  equipment  are  almost  out  of 
the  question.  Most  of  the  districts  in  the  table  given 
cannot  now  afford  taxes  enough  to  enable  them  to  se- 
cure a  well-educated  teacher,  to  say  nothing  of  im- 
proving their  schools.  In  other  counties,  richer  in 
wealth,  where  taxes  for  better  equipment  could  be 
raised  by  the  districts  without  burden,  it  is  difficult 
to  get  either  the  trustees  or  the  people  to  vote  the 
necessary  funds.  Economy  approaching  penurious- 
ness  has  for  so  long  been  the  habit  that  a  proposal  for 
increased  expenses  now  comes  as  something  of  a  shock. 
Many  school  districts  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley 
have  voted  $200  to  $300  of  school  tax  each  year  for  so 
long  that  the  amount  has  become  fixed  by  tradition, 
and  a  proposal  now  for  its  material  increase  for  new 
facilities  would  bring  a  record-breaking  attendance  to 


2S54  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  school  meeting  to  oppose  the  increase.  Only  by 
patient  and  long-continued  urging  and  education  on 
the  part  of  the  county  educational  authorities,  or  by 
compulsion  on  the  part  of  the  state,  can  material  im- 
provement in  educational  conditions  be  eflfected  under 
the  district  system  of  school  control.  In  hundreds  of 
districts  in  every  state,  no  amount  of  urging  or  educa- 
tion can  secure  results,  for  the  reason  that  the  districts 
are  too  poor  in  taxable  wealth  to  enable  them  to  pro- 
vide anything  approaching  adequate  educational  facili- 
ties, even  if  they  had  the  wish  to  do  so. 

The  need  of  educational  reorganization.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  material  equipment  for  the  work  of  education, 
the  weakness  and  ineflSciency  of  the  district  system 
of  organization  and  maintenance  manifests  itself 
with  particular  force.  In  some  places  the  little  district 
school,  due  to  its  remoteness  from  other  neighbor- 
hoods and  to  the  sparsity  of  population  in  the  sur- 
rounding country,  must,  for  a  time  at  least,  remain 
much  as  it  now  is.  In  many  other  regions,  though, 
there  is  no  business  or  educational  reason  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  so  many  small,  poorly  equipped,  ineffi- 
ciently managed,  and  relatively  expensive  rural  schools. 
The  needs  of  rural  people  could  be  much  better 
served,  much  better  schools  for  their  children  could  be 
provided,  and  not  infrequently  a  financial  economy 
could  be  effected  as  well,  if  the  long-outgrown  district 
system  of  organization  and  maintenance  were  in  large 
part  superseded  by  a  more  rational  and  more  business- 


THE  TEACHING   EQUIPMENT  225 

like  system  of  school  organization  and  maintenance. 
That  such  a  reorganization  must  be  effected  before 
material,  general,  or  rapid  progress  can  be  made  in  re- 
directing and  revitalizing  rural  education,  the  writer 
believes  to  be  beyond  question,  and  the  following  chap- 
ter will  be  devoted  to  a  description  of  how  such  a  re- 
organization may  be  effected,  and  the  results  which 
might  be  obtained  from  such  reorganized  schools. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  can  a  teacher  in  a  small  rural  school  do,  when  she  finds 
such  a  building  as  is  described  on  page  209? 

2.  What  is  the  estimated  value  of  the  average  rural  schoolhouse 
of  your  county,  or  community?  How  many  have  any  sanitary 
conveniences?   How  many  would  rank  good,  fair,  and  poor? 

3.  How  many  have  any  equipment  for  instruction  in  manual  train- 
ing, domestic  science,  or  agriculture? 

4.  How  many  of  the  fundamental  needs  of  a  school  building,  as 
enumerated  on  pages  212  and  213,  have  been  met  in  school 
buildings  you  have  known? 

5.  How  many  of  the  school  sites  you  have  known  would  contribute 
to  aesthetic  training?  How  could  they  have  been  made  to  do  so, 
and  about  what  would  it  have  cost? 

6.  Compare  the  teaching  equipment  of  an  average  city  and  rural 
school  in  your  county. 

7.  About  what  would  it  cost  to  supply  a  rural  school  with  the 
teaching  apparatus  mentioned  on  pages  219  and  220? 

8.  What  is  the  average  library  equipment  of  the  rural  schools  of 
your  community? 

9.  How  much  of  a  "library  fund"  is  there  each  year  for  additions 
and  replacements?  Who  spends  it,  and  what  plan  for  its  expendi- 
ture is  followed? 

10.  Suggest  plans  for  raising  library  or  equipment  money  each  year 
by  means  of  entertainments,  or  other  such  plans. 

11.  How  many  of  the  districts  of  your  county  could  afford  $6000  for 
a  new  and  well-equipped  schoolhouse? 

12.  What  is  the  average  cost  per  pupil  of  rural  education  in  your 
county  or  community?  How  does  this  compare  with  city  costs? 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  RURAL  EDUCATION 

The  multiplication  of  districts.  The  tendency  of 
rural  people  to  multiply  the  number  of  school  districts 
has  been  commented  on  frequently  in  the  preceding 
chapters.  To  this  the  laws,  originally  designed  to  make 
easy  the  creation  of  new  schools,  have  opposed  but 
little  resistance.  Whenever  the  attendance  at  a  school 
became  sufficient  to  provide  members  enough  in  each 
class  to  awaken  a  little  intellectual  enthusiasm,  the  de- 
mand for  a  school  nearer  home  led  to  a  demand  for  a 
division  of  the  district,  and  the  erection  of  a  new  school- 
house  nearer  to  the  homes  of  the  seceding  parents. 
This  process  has  been  well  illustrated  in  Figures  44  and 
45.  In  the  days  of  cheap  schoolhouses,  cheap  teachers, 
cheap  education,  and  local  taxation,  it  was  thought 
wise  to  encourage  the  process,  and  commonly  pride 
was  taken  by  the  people  in  the  abundant  school  facili- 
ties thus  provided.  The  process  went  on  until  each 
township,  six  miles  square,  came  to  have  from  six  to 
nine  one-teacher  rural  schoolhouses  in  it,  seven  or 
eight  to  the  township  being  the  common  numbers. 
This  meant  a  school  for  every  four  to  six  square  miles 
of  farm  land,  and  with  maximum  walking  distances 
of  from  one  to  two  miles  for  the  children. 


REORGANIZATION   OF   RURAL   EDUCATION    227 

Even  the  recent  decreases  in  the  rural  population, 
the  decreasing  size  of  farm  families,  and  the  with- 
drawal of  the  older  children  from  the  school,  all  of 
which  have  greatly  decreased  the  school  attendance, 
have  not  wholly  stopped  the  further  multiplication  of 
districts.  Often  the  desire  of  a  neighborhood  to  have  a 
school  of  their  own  outweighs  all  other  considerations, 
the  laws  interpose  but  little  resistance,  the  county 
superintendent  can  offer  but  little  objection,  and  the 
result  is  that  another  small  struggling  school  is  created, 
three  new  representatives  of  the  people  are  elected  to 
office,  and  a  new  rural  schoolhouse  soon  greets  the  eye. 

The  present  result.  This  process  has  gone  on  for  so 
long  that  every  county  which  has  been  settled  any 
length  of  time,  and  has  reached  a  somewhat  stationary 
level  in  its  rural  population,  has  to-day  from  five  to 
seven  times  as  many  schools,  and  elects  to  office  from 
five  to  seven  times  as  many  school  officials,  as  there  is 
any  need  for;  pays  for  from  one  fourth  to  one  third 
more  teachers  than  there  is  any  necessity  of  employ- 
ing; and  maintains  a  general  level  of  rural  education 
far  below  what  could  be  maintained,  for  the  same 
money,  if  the  schools  of  the  county  were  reorganized 
on  a  rational  business  and  educational  basis.  The  re- 
sult generally  is  a  collection  of  small  schools,  a  horde 
of  school  officials,  short  terms,  cheap  teachers,  poor 
buildings,  poor  teaching  equipment,  schools  behind 
the  times,  and  a  general  lack  of  interest  on  the  part  of 
the  people  in  the  schools  maintained.  This  is  one  of 


228  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  inevitable  results  of  the  district  system  of  school 
administration,  and  the  burden  of  it  falls  heavily  upon 
country  children. 

Recent  attempts  to  improve  conditions.  Much  has 
been  said  and  written  within  recent  years,  with  a  view 
to  remedying  these  conditions,  and  some  pressure  has 
been  applied  with  this  end  in  view,  but  with  relatively 
little  success.  In  a  number  of  states  the  tax  limits  have 
been  increased  by  law;  minimum  salaries  for  teach- 
ers have  been  prescribed;  an  earnest  effort  to  secure 
more  trained  teachers  has  been  made;  the  minimum 
yearly  school  term  permitted  has  been  ordered  length- 
ened; improved  sanitary  conditions  for  school  build- 
ings have  been  demanded;  special  state  aid  for  poor 
districts  has  been  set  aside;  agricultural  instruction 
has  been  introduced;  and  an  effort  has  been  made  to 
educate  the  district  trustees  to  some  better  conception 
of  their  duties  and  responsibilities.  The  net  result  of 
two  decades  of  such  effort  is  that  a  little  more  money 
is  now  being  spent  on  rural  education;  the  term  is 
somewhat  longer,  and  slowly  increasing;  the  average 
schoolhouse  is  a  little  better,  and  a  movement  for 
schoolhouse  improvement  seems  to  have  set  in;  the 
teachers  have  a  little  better  training,  and  the  salaries 
paid  are  a  little  higher;  the  trustee  perhaps  gains  a 
little  better  conception  of  his  functions  before  his  suc- 
cessor is  elected  to  oflSce ;  and  here  and  there  one  reads 
of  a  revitalized  rural  school  which  is  rendering  admir- 
able community  service.    The  progress,  though,  has 


REORGANIZATION   OF  RURAL   EDUCATION    229 

been  small  compared  with  the  effort  expended,  and 
not  infrequently  the  progress  made  one  year,  with 
much  effort,  has  all  been  lost  a  few  years  later.  The 
process  is  too  slow  and  too  ineffective  to  accomplish 
much,  and  because  it  does  not  go  to  the  root  of  the 
matter  at  all. 

The  root  of  the  matter.  The  real  root  of  the  matter 
is  that  the  district  system  of  school  administration 
and  school  financing  is  a  system  which  is  wasteful  of 
effort  and  of  funds,  results  in  great  educational  waste, 
and  is  unprogressive  to  a  high  degree.  But  little 
marked  progress  in  the  improvement  of  rural  schools 
has  been  made  in  any  state  where  the  district  system 
reigns  supreme,  and  but  little  may  be  looked  for  until 
the  district  system,  with  its  local  taxation  and  control 
and  its  multitude  of  little  schools,  is  subordinated  by 
general  law  to  a  better  system  of  organization  and 
management.  The  unwise  multiplication  of  school  dis- 
tricts should  be  stopped,  schools  which  will  afford  the 
kind  of  education  needed  by  rural  people  should  be 
provided  instead,  and  a  rearrangement  of  expendi- 
tures should  be  made  which  will  provide  sufficient  funds 
to  maintain  the  necessary  number  of  good  schools  and 
attract  good  teachers  to  them.  High-school  advan- 
tages, of  a  kind  suited  to  rural  needs,  now  largely  lack- 
ing, should  also  be  provided  for  all.  This  is  feasible 
only  through  a  reorganization  of  the  educational  re- 
sources of  each  county,  and  along  good  business  and 
educational  lines. 


230  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Equal  rights  for  the  country  child.  Such  a  reorgani- 
zation proposes  nothing  more  or  less  than  the  creation, 
for  country  children,  of  as  good  schools  for  their  needs 
as  city  children  now  enjoy.  It  contemplates  the  aban- 
donment of  dozens  of  the  small  and  inefficient  one- 
teacher  schools  which  dot  the  surface  of  almost  every 
county,  and  the  creation,  instead,  of  a  much  smaller 
number  of  centrally  located  schools. 

CONSOLIDATION  IN  CENTRAL  SCHOOLS 

The  consolidation  movement.  The  movement  to 
restore  to  the  country  child  something  like  equal  rights 
with  the  city  child,  in  the  matter  of  educational  advan- 
tages, had  its  beginnings  in  Massachusetts  as  early  as 
1867,  and  as  a  movement  has  become  known  as  that 
for  the  consolidation  of  schools.  Little  use  was  made 
of  the  law  in  Massachusetts  until  after  the  final  aboli- 
tion of  the  district  system,  in  1882,  and  it  was  not  un- 
til about  1890  that  the  consolidation  of  schools  began  to 
make  marked  headway  there.  Since  then,  under  the 
restored  town  management  of  schools,  much  progress 
in  consolidation  has  been  made,  not  only  in  Massachu- 
setts, but  in  the  other  New  England  States  as  well. 

To  the  westward  the  movement  began  in  Ohio,  with 
the  abolition  of  the  subdistrict  system  in  1892.  In- 
diana began  the  movement  in  1901,  and,  due  largely  to 
the  absence  of  the  district  system,  this  state  has  since 
then  made  remarkable  progress  in  the  consolidation 
of  its  little  rural  schools. 


REORGANIZATION  OF   RURAL  EDUCATION    231 

REORGANIZATION    OF    RURAL    EDUCATION 

As  a  result  of  thirty  years  of  work,  the  state,  by 
1920,  was  45  per  cent  consolidated.  In  the  twenty-nine 
years  between  1891  and  1920  the  number  of  one-room 
schools  in  the  state  had  been  reduced  from  8853  to 
4880,  and  there  were  in  1920  a  total  of  1002  consol- 
idated schools.  Eight  counties  were  over  90  per  cent 
consolidated,  and  one  county,  shown  below,  was  97.7 


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FiQ.  56.  RANDOLPH  COUNTY,  INDIANA.  SHOWING  PROGRESS  OF 

CONSOLIDATION  BY  1921 

The  16  large  black  circles  indicate  the  position  of  consolidated  jrrade  and  high 
schools,  tho  0  hollow  squares  indicate  consolidated  grade  schools;  the  3  crosses  indi- 
cate surviving  one-room  rural  schools;  and  the  128  small  black  spots  indicate 
abandoned  schools.  The  heavy  black  lines  indicate  township  lines.  The  county  b 
approximately  £0  miles  square. 


232 


RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 


per  cent,  there  being  but  three  one-room  schools  left 
out  of  an  original  131. 

Slow  progress  of  consolidation.  Up  to  recently  the 
great  progress  in  the  consolidation  of  schools  has  been 
made  in  states  using  either  the  townships  as  the  unit 


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Fig.  57.  MAP  OF  IOWA,  SHOWING  THE  LOCATION  OF  THE  400  ' 

CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOLS  IN  MAY.  1920 

Many  of  these  are  township  consolidations,  and  have  both  grade  and  high  school. 
It  took  Iowa  17  years  to  secure  the  first  17  consolidated  schools,  but  in  the  six  years 
from  1914  to  1920  over  300  were  organised.  As  a  result  50,000  children  have  passed 
from  one-room  rural  to  consolidated  schools,  and  the  state  is  now  about  one  sixth 
consolidated.   2500  one-room  schools  have  been  closed,  but  11,000  still  remain. 

for  school  administration,  —  the  New  England  States 
(towns),  Ohio,  Indiana,  Iowa,  North  Dakota,  —  or 
in  states  organized  for  schools  with  the  county  as  the 
unit,  —  Maryland,  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Louisiana,  or  Utah.  No  marked  progress  up  to  very 
recently  has  been  made  in  securing  consolidations,  de- 
spite much  effort  expended  —  for  example,  in  Illinois, 
Kansas,  and  California — in  the  district-system  states. 


EEORGANIZATION  OF  RURAL  EDUCATION    233 

The  stronger  the  district  system  was  entrenched 
the  greater  the  difficulty  in  securing  consoHdations. 
Both  trustees  and  people  seemed  to  unite  to  resist 
any  change. 

Recent  rapid  adoption  of  the  consolidation  idea. 
Since  about  1914a  number  of  new  influences  have  com- 
bined to  force  new  attention  to  the  consolidation 
idea.  The  World  War  proved  to  be  an  influence  of  the 
first  importance,  resulting  as  it  did  in  a  great  in- 
crease in  prices  for  everything  needed,  a  great  short- 
age of  teachers,  a  necessary  doubling  of  teachers' 
salaries,  and  a  general  increase  of  all  tax  rates.  Since 
about  1914,  also,  the  hard-roads  idea  has  made  very 
rapid  progress,  and  in  many  states  and  counties  to-day 
a  general  state  and  county  system  of  paved  highways 
has  been  or  is  being  constructed. 

These  new  influences  have  not  only  called  new  at- 
tention to  the  desirability  of  consolidating  schools,  but 
have  also  shown  the  possibility  and  desirability  of 
larger  consolidations  than  had  before  been  thought 
possible.  Using  horse-drawn  wagons  to  transport  the 
pupils,  the  area  of  a  township  and  the  union  of  six  to 
eight  one-room  schools  represented  about  the  maxi- 
mum limits  for  school  consolidation.  With  good  roads 
and  automobiles,  three  to  four  townships  and  twenty 
to  twenty-five  one-room  schools  may  now  be  consoli- 
dated into  one  institution.  This  is  well  shown  in 
Figure  58,  which  shows  the  size  and  route  for  a  large 
Colorado  consolidated  school.  A  number  of  such  large 


234 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


—    6 


TRANSPORTATION  MAP 

SARGENT  CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOL 

KIO  GRANDE  COUNTY  COLORADO 

Key  to  Routes  ^j. 

Roate    1:111         Route    4:    4  4  4         Route    Ts    7  7  7 

Route    2:    2  2  2        Route    5:    5  5  5  Route    8:    8  8  8 

Route    3:    3  3  3         Route    6:    6  6  6  Route    9:    9  9  9 


Fia.  58.  A  LARGE  COLORADO  CONSOLIDATED  DISTRICT  (AFTER 
SCHRIBER) 

This  map  covers  four  townships,  about  three  of  which  are  included  in  the  Sargent 
school  district.  A  tenth  route  was  added  in  19^20.  The  average  length  of  haul  is  IS 
miles,  and  the  longest  haul  ISJ  miles.  The  School  had,  in  1920,  a  superintendent, 
five  high-school  teachers  and  a  principal,  six  grade  teachers,  two  special  teachers, 
and  an  enrollment  of  378.  The  plant  consisted  of  the  large  modern-type  high-school 
building,  a  grade-school  building  of  similar  character,  a  two-story  garage  and  gym- 
nasium, a  tcacherage,  for  the  women  teachers,  a  home  for  the  principal,  a  parson- 
age, and  the  superintendent's  cottage.  The  buildings  are  pictured  and  the  school 
described  in  the  final  chapter  of  this  book. 


REORGANIZATION  OF  RURAL  EDUCATION    235 

districts  have  been  formed  in  this  state,  Minnesota, 
and  elsewhere. 

As  a  consequence  of  these  recent  influences  favor- 
able to  the  consolidation  of  schools,  the  movement, 
since  about  1916,  has  progressed  with  a  rapidity  be- 
fore entirely  unknown.  New  laws  facilitating  consolida- 
tion,' and  others  giving  state  aid  for  transportation,  ^ 
have  been  enacted.  A  1919  law  in  Nebraska  provides 
for  a  comprehensive  plan  of  county  reorganization 
by  providing  a  board  to  redistrict  each  county.  In 
Tennessee,  as  in  most  other  county-unit  states,  the 
county  board  of  education  has  been  given  power  to 
consolidate  schools  as  may  seem  desirable,  and  to  fur- 
nish transportation  as  needed.  In  consequence  many 
states  report  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  of  con- 
solidated schools  after  about  1916,  and  in  some  of  our 
states  where,  by  reason  of  the  rough  topography  and 
sparse  population  one  would  not  expect  many  consol- 
idations, as  for  example  Colorado  —  see  Figure  59  — 
rather  remarkable  progress  has  been  made. 

Inaugurating  the  movement;  the  common  plan. 
Two  plans  have  been  followed.  The  one  which  has  usu- 
ally been  used  in  the  Northern  States  has  been  for  those 

*  For  example,  the  Holmberg  Act  of  Minnesota,  which  requires 
the  calling  of  an  election  on  petition  of  25  per  cent  of  the  resident 
freeholders;  requires  the  voting  to  be  done  in  one  central  place  instead 
of  by  districts,  and  the  district  is  created  if  a  majority  of  the  votes 
cast  are  favorable. 

*  In  Minnesota  a  consolidated  school  may  draw  up  to  $4000  a 
year  for  transportation,  and  in  Georgia  state  aid  is  given  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  teachers  employed. 


23G 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


interested  in  establishing  such  schools  to  look  over  the 
school  map  of  a  county  and  pick  out  certain  natural 
concentrating  centers,  —  communities  where  the  ad- 
vantages of  consolidation  would  easily  be  made  evident, 


Fig.  59.  MAP  OF  COLORADO,  SHOWING  CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOLS 

(AFTER  SCHRIBER) 

This  map  shows  progress  to  end  of  June,  1921.  The  146  black  spots  indicate 
consolidated  districts;  the  50  circles  proposed  consolidations.  In  1917  there  were 
only  20  consolidated  schools  in  the  state.  At  the  end  of  1921  there  were  400  auto 
busses  and  48  horse-drawn  vehicles  used  in  transportation. 

and  where  the  people  were  progressive  and  likely  to 
favor  such  an  idea,  —  and  then  to  begin  a  process  of 
education  of  the  people  with  a  view  to  securing  action. 
The  first  consolidated  school  in  a  county  is  usually 
hard  to  get  voted,  and  requires  much  patient  effort  on 
the  part  of  those  interested.  After  one  or  two  suc- 
cessful unions  have  been  formed,  others  follow  with 
more  ease,  and  before  long  most  of  the  progressive 


REORGANIZATION  OF   RURAL  EDUCATION    237 

portions  of  a  county  can  be  induced  to  form  unions 
for  the  maintenance  of  such  consoUdated  schools. 


rn    Central  School 

(J       Abandoned  School 
ffl       School  Houses  in  Use 


X  Farm  Honses  with  Chiidieo 

«  <•  '•         '•   no    «• 

»•  Direction  of  Routes 

#         Starting    "        " 


Fig.  60.  STRANDED  DISTRICTS 

A  township  consolidation.    Central  school  located  at  one  edge  of  the  township; 
stranded  districts  too  far  away  to  join,  later  on. 

This  method  of  slow,  general  education  has  its  ad- 
vantages, as  well  as  its  disadvantages.  Its  advan- 
tages lie  chiefly  in  that  progressive  communities  do 


238 


RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 


not  have  to  wait  for  years  for  unprogressive  commu- 
nities to  experience  conversion,  but  may  go  ahead  at 


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irm  Houses  no  Children            Abandoned 
"     with      ••              '  School 

3 
— *■  nirection  Of  Rontes 
*      Starting   "        •• 

Fio.  61.  DIAGRAM  OF  GUSTAVUS  TOWNSHIP,  TRUMBULL  COUNTY. 
OHIO.  SHOWING  TRANSPORTATION  ROUTES 

Nine  waRong  are  here  used  to  gather  up  the  children  each  day,  and  take  them  to 
and  from  the  central  school. 


once  and  plan  what  is  best  for  their  children.  Its  dis- 
advantages lie  chiefly  in  that  some  unions  are  formed 
which  are  too  small;    that  some   districts   are   left 


REORGANIZATION   OF   RURAL  EDUCATION    239 

stranded,  as  it  were,  too  small  ever  to  form  a  union 
alone,  and  not  advantageously  located  for  joining  exist- 
ing unions,  and  that  unions  are  formed  with  purely 
local  interests  in  view,  and  with  no  thought  as  to  organ- 
ization with  reference  to  a  comprehensive  scheme  for 
the  county  as  a  whole.  These  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages are  well  illustrated  by  Figure  60,  showing 
two  stranded  districts  in  a  township  consolidation. 

The  result  in  Ohio.  The  consolidation  plan  as  it 
works  out  may  be  illustrated  by  the  map  of  an  Ohio 
township  given  in  Figure  61,  and  a  description  of  the 
early  results  there.  This  township  is  one  which  early 
abandoned  all  of  its  district  schools  and  centralized 
the  pupils  in  a  school  at  the  center  of  the  town- 
ship, the  children  being  hauled  to  and  from  the 
school  each  day  in  transportation  wagons.  When  first 
proposed  in  this  township  there  was  much  opposition. 
This  is  always  the  case  and  must  be  expected.  The 
first  vote  on  the  proposal  resulted  in  its  defeat,  but  the 
consolidated  school-district  was  created  shortly  after- 
ward, by  a  small  majority  vote.  Two  years  later  a 
visiting  commission  from  another  township  made  a 
house-to-house  canvass  of  this  township,  to  ascertain 
the  sentiment  of  the  people  toward  the  centralized 
school  idea.  They  found  but  seven  persons  in  the 
township  still  opposed  to  the  idea,  and  of  these,  six  had 
no  children  in  the  school. 

As  a  result  of  the  consolidation  effected  the  number 
of  teachers  was  reduced  one  half,  a  township  superin- 


240  RURAL  LIFE   AND  EDUCATION 

tendent  of  schools  was  employed,  and  a  new  interest 
and  enthusiasm  in  the  educational  work  of  the  town- 
ship was  awakened.  The  total  cost  for  the  consoli- 
dated school  thus  provided,  after  paying  for  the  nine 
transportation  wagons,  which  was  53  per  cent  of  the 
whole  cost,  was  but  $245  more  than  the  nine  little  in- 
efficient rural  schools  had  formerly  cost.  This  is  the 
general  experience  everywhere.  Where  the  consoli- 
dated school  costs  more,  it  is  nearly  always  because 
much  better  educational  facilities  are  provided. 

The  centralization  plan.  The  map  and  the  experi- 
ence of  this  township  are  illustrative  of  the  plan.  An 
area,  neither  too  large  nor  too  small,  is  incorporated  by 
vote  into  a  consolidated  school-district.  In  Ohio  or  In- 
diana the  township  unit  of  school  administration  forms 
a  ready-made  area  for  the  consolidation  of  schools.  A 
location,  as  near  the  center  of  the  consolidating  area  as 
is  possible,  is  selected  for  the  centralized  school,  and  a 
new  and  modern  school  building  is  erected  there.  The 
old  district-school  buildings  are  then  abandoned  and 
sold,  or  rebuilt  for  shops  or  teacherages,  and  wagons  or 
automobiles,  somewhat  of  the  type  of  the  one  shown  on 
the  plate  inserted  in  this  chapter,  are  used  to  gather  up 
and  haul  all  of  the  children  to  school  each  morning,  and 
to  return  them  to  their  homes  each  night.  The  auto- 
mobile is  now  becoming  the  common  means  for  trans- 
porting the  pupils.  Frequently  other  forms  of  con- 
veyance are  employed,  such  as  the  trolley,  as  is  also 
shown  on  the  plate.  The  trolley  car  and  the  automo- 


REORGANIZATION   OF   RURAL   EDUCATION     241 

bile  make  possible  transportation  for  longer  distances, 
and  hence  permit  of  the  formation  of  larger  consolidat- 
ing districts.  Instead  of  continuing  the  old  process  of 
carrying  a  small  and  a  poor  school  nearer  to  the  child, 


Fig.  62.    CENTRAL  PUBLIC  SCHOOL,  TRUMBULL  COUNTY,  OHIO 

A  type  of  the  Ohio  oonsolidatfid  school.  This  is  a  brick,  steam-heated,  slate- 
roofed  buiHiiig,  which  cost  originally  about  SiO,()(X».  It  has  eight  rooms  and  base- 
ment, and  four  acres  of  ground.  It  is  located  five  miles  from  a  railroad,  and  is  the 
most  consiiiciious  landmark  of  the  region.  Higli  school,  elementary  school,  and 
kindergarten  are  provided,  and  an  annual  lecture  courst  and  many  community 
entertainments  are  held  here.     It  is  a  community  center  for  tlie  township. 

the  consolidation  movement  proposes  to  reverse  the 
process  and  to  carry  the  child  some  distance  to  a  large 
and  a  good  school,  and  usually  one  where,  in  addition, 
at  least  partial  high-school  advantages  may  also  be  ob- 
tained. It  takes  him  from  his  home  in  the  morning, 
lands  him  safely  and  dry  at  the  school,  on  time,  each 
day,  and  then  takes  him  back  to  his  home  each  eve- 
ning, and  in  the  same  condition. 

Advantages  of  the  plan.  The  advantages  of  the  con- 
solidation plan  may  be  summarized,  as  follows:  — 

1.  Both  the  enrollment  and  the  attendance  for  the 


242 


RURAL  LIFE  AND    EDUCATION 


consolidated  area  are  materially  increased.  The  gain 
in  attendance  in  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades 
is  usually  marked.  The  provision  of  some  high-school 
advantages  also  brings  in  the  older  pupils,  who  are 
now  absent  from  the  district  schools. 

2.  The  elimination  of  tardiness  and  the  reduction  of 
absences  to  a  minimum.  The  driver  should  be  author- 


FiG.  63.  THE  ORDINARY  ROAD  TO  LEARNING 

ized  to  act  as  an  attendance  officer  also,  and  to  report 
reasons  for  all  failures  to  attend.  In  consolidated  dis- 
tricts the  percentage  of  attendance  is  about  as  good  as 
in  the  cities. 

3.  Pupils  arrive  dry  and  warm  each  day;  there  is  no 
wet  clothing  to  be  dried,  and  colds  and  other  troubles, 
due  to  exposure,  are  materially  reduced. 

4.  The  pupils  are  under  the  care  of  a  responsible 
person  to  and  fro,  and  quarreling,  smoking,  profanity, 
vulgarity,  and  improper  language  and  conduct  are  pre- 


Wagon  used  in  Springfield  Township,  Clark  County,  Ohio. 


Special  school  car  on  Cleveland  and  Southwestern  Electric  Line  to  Elyria. 


School  automobile  in  Del  Norte  County,  Colorado. 
DIFFERENT   MEANS   FOR   TRANSPORTING   PUPILS 


TYPES   OP   MODEKN   CONSOLIDATED   SCHOOLS 

These  three  buildings  contain  four,  six,  and  eight  rooms,  reading  from  tlie  top 
downward.  Such  schools  can  be  made  eommunity-center  schools  of  large  useful- 
ness. 


REORGANIZATION   OF  RURAL  EDUCATION   243 

vented,  both  to  and  from  school.  In  some  localities 
the  protection  thus  afforded  girls  is  very  desirable. 

5.  Better  grading  and  classification  of  pupils  is  pos- 
sible, classes  are  large  enough  to  stimulate  enthusiasm 
and  intellectual  rivalry,  and  pupils  can  be  placed  where 
they  can  work  to  best  advantage.  Interest,  enthusi- 
asm, and  confidence  come  from  contact  with  numbers. 

6.  The  number  of  grades  which  each  teacher  must 
handle  is  reduced  from  eight  or  nine  to  two  or  three, 
with  longer  recitation  periods  in  consequence. 

7.  Opportunity  is  provided  for  the  introduction  of 
good  instruction  in  drawing,  music,  nature  study, 
manual  training,  domestic  science,  and  agriculture,  as 
well  as  for  the  enrichment  of  other  subjects  of  study. 
It  is  the  one  great  means  for  introducing  these  newer 
subjects  into  the  rural  school. 

8.  The  pupils  have  the  advantages  of  better  school 
buildings  and  school  sites;  better  schoolhouse  equip- 
ment in  heating,  lighting,  ventilation,  and  sanitary 
conveniences;  and  better  teaching  apparatus,  books, 
maps,  etc.  All  of  these  naturally  follow  a  concentration 
of  wealth  and  effort  in  the  provision  of  school  advan- 
tages, and  often  cost  less  per  capita  than  the  much 
inferior  equipment  now  costs  for  small  and  scattered 
schools. 

9.  It  leads  to  school  terms  of  eight  or  nine  months, 
instead  of  the  five  or  six  commonly  provided  by  the 
district  schools;  to  the  employment  and  retention  of 
better  teachers;  to  supervision  for  the  school;  and  to 


244  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

a  higher  grade  of  instruction.  Instead  of  passing  the 
teacher  around  from  district  to  district,  she  is  retained, 
and  the  pupils  are  passed  from  grade  to  grade. 

10.  Community  interest  in  education  is  quickened, 
and  community  pride  in  the  school  maintained  is  awak- 
ened. This  leads  to  community  interest  as  opposed  to 
district  interest;  tends  to  break  down  the  isolation  and 
the  stagnation  of  rural  communities;  and  leads  to 
deeper  sympathy  and  better  fellowship  among  the  peo- 
ple. It  improves  the  community  as  well  as  the  school, 
and  opens  the  way  for  such  consolidated  schools  to  be- 
come centers  for  the  higher  life  of  the  community. 

11.  It  brings  enough  pupils  together  at  one  place 
to  permit  of  the  organization  of  group  games,  and  thus 
provides  for  wholesome  and  stimulating  play.  The 
educative  value  of  plaj''  is  largely  lost  in  the  little  dis- 
trict school,  because  there  are  not  enough  pupils  to 
play  many  games. 

12.  It  is  much  more  economical  in  administration, 
and  this  often  holds  true  even  after  longer  terms  and 
better  teachers  have  been  provided.  Much  depends 
upon  the  economy  with  which  the  transportation  can 
be  arranged.  If  a  wagon  is  required  for  each  school 
closed  the  expenses  will  be  about  the  same;  if  fewer 
wagons  are  required  the  expenses  will  be  less.  In  the 
relative  eflSciency  of  the  two  kinds  of  schools  there  is 
no  comparison,  however. 

13.  It  offers  to  the  rural  boy  and  girl,  and  hence 
to  country  parents,  all  of  the  desirable  educational 


REORGANIZATION   OF   RURAL   EDUCATION    245 

advantages  which  the  city  boy  or  girl  now  obtains, 
and  without  having  to  go  to  the  city  to  obtain  them. 

14.  The  transportation  feature  indirectly  aids  in  the 
building  of  better  roads,  which  in  turn  makes  rural  life 
more  attractive  and  helps  to  break  up  the  isolation. 

15.  In  reducing  the  number  of  teachers  needed  it 
eliminates  many  of  the  poorest  and  the  weakest,  and 
it  also  reduces  by  from  65  to  80  per  cent  the  number  of 
district  trustees  required  to  manage  the  schools.  Both 
of  these  are  gains  of  much  importance. 

Disadvantages  of  the  plan.  The  main  objections 
advanced  against  the  plan  may  be  summarized,  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

1.  Depreciation  of  property;  decreased  valuation  of 
farms  in  districts  where  schools  have  been  closed.  This 
idea  has  been  disproved  wherever  the  plan  has  been 
tried.  A  poor  elementary  school  on  a  farm  does  not  in- 
crease its  value  as  much  as  a  good  school  five  or  six 
miles  away,  with  transportation  and  high-school  ad- 
vantages provided. 

2.  Dislike  to  sending  children  so  far  from  home.  A 
child  one  mile  from  home,  who  has  to  walk,  is  farther 
removed  than  a  child  five  miles  away,  with  transpor- 
tation, and  not  so  well  cared  for. 

3.  Necessity  of  taking  a  cold  lunch,  instead  of  com- 
ing home  at  noon,  in  the  case  of  pupils  Hving  near  the 
school.  This  objection  can  be  easily  remedied  by  the 
school,  by  using  the  domestic-science  equipment. 

4.  Children  obliged  to  travel  so  far  in  bad  weather; 


246 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


children  obliged  to  walk  part  of  the  way  to  meet  the 
team,  and  then  ride  in  damp  clothing;  unsuitable  con- 
veyance and  driver;  bad  associations  en  route.  These 
objections  can  all  be  eliminated  by  the  school  authori- 
ties, whose  duty  it  is  to  provide  suitable  drivers,  proper 
conveyances,  and  reasonable  routes. 

5.  Additional  expense  to  parents  to  provide  proper 
clothing  to  attend  a  central  school.  This  objection  has 
been  found  to  have  little  weight. 

6.  Local  jealousy;  an  acknowledgment  that  some 
section  of  the  community  has  greater  advantages  and 
is  outstripping  other  sections.  This  is  a  rather  strong 
argument,  —  with  country  people. 

7.  It  removes  an  ancient  landmark,  and  is  in  the 
nature  of  an  innovation.  This  is  an  even  more  for- 
midable argument 
with  a  consider- 
able class  of  rural 
people,  to  whom 
all  progress  is 
painful.  The  ar- 
gument is  often 
really  an  argu- 
ment in  favor  of 

consolidation,  but  it  frequently  takes  years  to  make 
such  people  see  it  this  way.  The  presence  of  at  least 
one  hundred  thousand  such  landmarks  in  the  diflFer- 
ent  states  is  one  reason  why  rural  education  labors 
under  so  many  difficulties. 


kii>,\jA 


Pio.  64.     ONE  OF  THE  LANDMARKS 


REORGANIZATION  OF  RURAL   EDUCATION    247 

The  county-unit  plan.  In  the  Southern  States,  where 
the  county  is  the  unit  of  school  administration,  where 
township  lines  scarcely  exist,  and  where  the  district 
authorities  have  no  functions  of  any  importance,  the 
county  boards  of  education  have  been  able  to  proceed 
with  a  plan  for  county  organization  which  has  re- 
sulted, in  many  cases,  in  complete  county  consolida- 
tion. This  is  well  shown  in  the  accompanying  map  of 
Duval  County,  Florida,  where  complete  consolidation 
has  not  only  been  effected,  but  the  location  of  future 
consolidated  schools  has  been  provided  for. 


ConBollSitad  BoBool n 

^oundarj  of  ConBOlidated  Pitftrtct  .^       m 

Lftunob  Route*...*. ~ — ....n      ' 

BtMinJlotdB  .■■■,■■—.—         tmlM 


Pig.  65.  MAP  SHOWING  CONSOLroATED  DISTRICTS  AND  LOCATION 
OF  CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOLHOUSES,  IN  DUVAL  COUNTY,  FLORIDA 
(After  Knorr.) 

Area  of  county,  884  sq.  miles.  Location  of  future  consolidated  schools  shown. 
Two  launches  are  used  in  transportation,  in  addition  to  28  wagons,  all  owned  by  the 
county.    Thirteen  schools  answer  the  needs  of  this  large  county. 


QiS  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

In  this  Florida  county  a  complete  reorganization  of 
the  rural  and  village  schools  of  the  county  has  been 
made,  and  all  placed  under  one  central  control.  This 
central  control  is  exercised  by  a  County  Board  of  Ed- 
ucation, which  employs  the  County  Superintendent 
of  Schools,  as  well  as  all  principals,  teachers,  and  jan- 
itors, and  manages  all  of  the  schools  of  the  county, 
outside  of  the  central  city,  as  a  unit.  The  county  sys- 
tem of  schools  then  becomes  exactly  analagous  to  a 
city  school  system,  and  can  be  made  to  render  a  some- 
what analagous  service. 

Advantages  of  the  county  unit.  The  evident  advan- 
tages of  this  county  plan  of  action  are  that  the  educa- 
tional resources  of  the  county  are  dealt  with  as  a  unit, 
and  a  unified  scheme  for  educational  improvement  and 
higher  education  for  all  is  adopted  at  one  time.  Land 
and  property  values,  number  of  children,  probable  fu- 
ture growth,  topography  and  roads,  climate  as  deter- 
mining size,  educational  needs,  and  natural  community 
boundaries  must  all  be  considered  in  making  an  educa- 
tional survey  of  a  county  with  a  view  to  its  educa- 
tional reorganization.  The  mistakes  made  in  organizing 
independent  unions  may  thus  be  prevented.  It  may 
take  a  little  longer  to  secure  the  initial  action,  but  ac- 
tion when  taken  is  likely  to  prove  far  more  satisfactory 
and  permanent.  A  carefully  worked-out  plan  for  edu- 
cational organization  can  be  worked  out  and  approved 
as  a  basis  for  action. 


REORGANIZATION  OF  RURAL  EDUCATION    249 

The  same  form  of  county  reorganization  as  that 
shown  for  a  Florida  county  is  shown  by  the  two  maps 
of  Ada  County,  Idaho,  reproduced  on  this  and  the 
following  page.  The  first  shows  the  existing  school 
districts;  the  second,  how  the  county  might  be  re- 
organized into  a  much  smaller  number  of  consolidated 
districts,  with  adequate  provision  for  future  growth. 


CiSTtflCT  SCHOOL .^ S       CLCCTVie  MM 

HIGH  SCHOOL _I1        STEAM  ROAD^ 

OlSTmCT  BOUHOARy ~  TOWN 


Fio.  66.  MAP  OF  ADA  COUNTY,  IDAHO,  SHOWING  THE  BOUNDARIES 
OF  THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICTS  AND  THE  LOCATION  OF  RURAL  DIB- 
TRICT   SCHOOLS  AND   HIGH   SCHOOLS,  1908     (After  Knorr.) 

There  were  twenty-four  one-room  rural  schools  (ungraded),  five  two-room  rural 
achools,  one  three-room  rural  school,  with  a  total  of  4(^2  pupils  enrolled,  in  1907. 


S50 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


The  need  for  such  reorganizations.  It  is  only  in  con- 
solidated schools,  such  as  have  been  described,  and 
are  further  described  and  pictured  in  chapter  xiv,  that 
the  educational  and  social  needs  of  rural  children  can 
be  adequately  provided  for.  Something,  of  course,  can 
be  done  to  improve  the  site,  building,  teacher,  equip- 


NtSH  SCHOOL ....^.^O 

fVOPOSSO  COttSOUDXrCD  SCHOOL .v,-_H 

CONSOLIOATtP  m STRICT eOUNDMfr. 

tLECffill  VtW>.  ■     ■  -  ■  111' 

StTAMKOAO ,,„.,,  ,^i 

nwt^^.^t^^^ "  rX!^ 


Pio.  67.    SAME  COUNTY,  ILLUSTRATING  A  TENTATIVE  PLAN  OP 

CONSOLIDATION     (After  Knorr.) 

Numbers  before  "  6."  and  "  H.  S."  indicate  probable  enrollment  of  pupils  in 
elementary  and  higli-school  courses,  respectively.  Roman  numerals  are  used  to 
designate  the  proposed  consolidated  school-districts. 


REORGANIZATION   OF   RURAL   EDUCATION    251 

ment,  and  instruction  in  the  isolated  one-teacher  rural 
school  and  make  it  better  serve  the  community  needs. 
With  an  especially  capable  teacher  in  charge  it  is  pos- 
sible to  make  such  schools  exert  a  much  larger  educa- 
tional influence  than  is  usual  to-day.  Still,  after  all 
has  been  done,  the  great  handicaps  of  small  classes 
and  small  attendance,  numerous  recitations  with  short 
time  for  each,  lack  of  that  stimulation  to  mental  ac- 
tivity which  comes  only  from  contact  with  numbers, 
lack  of  opportunities  for  organized  play,  lack  of  special- 
ized instruction,  lack  of  supervision  and  guidance, 
shorter  terms,  inadequate  finance,  —  all  these  lay  a 
heavy  hand  on  the  education  of  country  boys  and 
girls.  Under  the  county  plan  of  school  administration 
as  found  in  the  South  and  in  Utah,  which  embodies  the 
best  form  of  educational  control  so  far  devised,  these 
little  district  schools  can  be  entirely  eliminated  and  a 
series  of  good  central  schools  can  be  established  in  their 
place.  Only  under  such  a  system  is  high-school  instruc- 
tion for  all  likely  to  be  well  worked  out. 

Such  schools  natural  community  centers.  It  is  in 
such  central  consolidated  schools,  too,  that  the  future 
rural  community  centers,  mentioned  at  some  length  in 
chapter  v,  can  best  be  developed.  Such  schools  be- 
come community  landmarks,  and  attract  general  at- 
tention. If  established  in  a  little  village,  itself  the 
natural  center  of  a  rural  community,  and  properly 
equipped  and  managed,  such  central  schools  can  be- 
come the  very  center  of  both  the  village  and  the  com- 


252 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


munity  life.  In  addition  to  the  ordinary  claissrooms, 
such  schools  should  include  rooms  for  manual  training, 
sewing,  domestic  science,  a  science  room,  an  assembly 
hall,  and  a  combined  school  and  public  library.  The 
school  should  possess  space  and  rooms  enough  and  be 
fitted  with  all  the  facilities  necessary  to  enable  it  to 
become  the  center  of  the  community  life. 


^nn^^'if".' 


i 


Fig.  68.    A  COMMUNirT-CENTER  SCHOOL 

A  community  school  illustrated.  The  above  pic- 
ture of  a  one-story  school,  and  the  floor  plans  which 
follow  on  the  next  page,  will  illustrate  the  idea.  The 
same  idea  could  be  worked  out  for  a  two-story  build- 
ing. The  six  classrooms  shown  on  the  plan  provide 
for  the  ordinary  classwork.  The  special  subjects  — 
manual  training,  sewing,  domestic  science,  agriculture, 
and  science  —  are  provided  for  in  the  basement,  as  is 
also  part  of  the  gymnasium  work.  In  addition,  the 
building  has  a  good  assembly  hall  on  one  corner  and  a 
library  room  on  the  other.  The  arrangement  of  the 
building  is  such  that  either  of  these  may  be  used  by 
the  community  without  interfering  with  the  work  of 


REORGANIZATION   OF  RURAL  EDUCATION    253 


s       L 

>n 

a  a  a  tn  a§- 

□  □  □  □  □  g 

IIm 

3 

□  a  □  □  □  a 

>^ 

CD  □  a  □  ao 
□  □an  as 

11'' 

8 
1 

□  □  a  c3  a", 

□  man  af 

a  □  a  □  □■  n 

Fig.  69.    FIRST-FLOOR  PLAN  OF  A   COMMUNITY-CENTER  SCHOOL 

In  the  basement  the  heating  plant  and  fuel  and  janitor's  rooms  are  under  class- 
rooms 3  and  4.  The  manual-training  room  is  under  the  assembly  hall ;  the  domes- 
tic science  and  sewing  rooms  are  under  the  library  ;  a  science  laboratory  is  under 
classroom  No.  1,  and  an  agricultural  laboratory  is  under  classroom  No.  6.  The 
toilet  rooms  and  showers  are  under  classrooms  2  and  5,  under  2  for  girls  and 
women,  and  under  5  for  boys  and  men,  and  so  arranged  that  they  may  be  entered 
by  the  school  children  by  the  main  stairways  from  above  or  from  the  playground 
by  the  rear  basement  entrance  stairs  leading  to  the  library  or  to  the  assembly  hall. 

Note  that  the  six  classrooms  form  a  unit  by  themselves,  and  can  be  closed  oft 
from  the  library  and  assembly  hall  entirely.  Similarly  either  the  assembly  hall  or 
the  library  may  be  used,  at  any  time,  without  any  access  to  the  school  proper. 
The  toilet  rooms  in  the  basement  may  be  shut  off,  in  a  similar  manner,  from  the 
Mhool. 


254  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  school.  The  assembly  hall,  fitted  with  movable 
seats,  can  be  used  by  the  school  for  morning  exercises, 
lectures,  exhibitions,  and  special  occasions,  and  also 
by  the  adult  residents  of  the  community  for  lectures, 
pubUc  meetings,  rural  organization  meetings,  farmers' 
institutes,  exhibitions,  or  social  affairs.  A  piano,  a  lan- 
tern and  screen,  a  stage,  and  possibly  a  moving-picture 
machine,  should  form  part  of  the  equipment  of  the 
hall.  The  library,  at  the  other  end  of  the  corridor, 
and  also  accessible  from  the  outside  without  disturb- 
ing the  school,  is  the  complement  of  the  assembly  hall 
as  a  center  for  the  community  life.  A  children's  room, 
with  open  bookshelves  about  the  wall;  stacks  for  stor- 
ing the  community  library,  traveling  libraries,  and  the 
school's  books  when  not  in  use;  reading-tables  and 
magazine  tables,  and  a  librarian  in  charge  of  the  room, 
constitute  the  essential  features  of  the  library  room. 

Given  now,  in  addition,  a  good  site  of  four  to  five 
acres,  with  a  teacherage,  lawn,  flowers,  trees,  play- 
grounds, experimental  gardens,  and  all  well  laid  out  and 
planted,  and  we  have  an  institution  of  which  any  com- 
munity may  well  feel  proud.  In  the  hands  of  teachers 
interested  in  rural  welfare,  such  can  be  made  not  onh 
strong  educational  institutions  for  rural  people,  bu^ 
the  very  center  of  the  higher  life  of  the  community  as 
well.  The  initial  cost  for  buildings  and  equipment, 
when  spread  over  the  larger  area,  is  relatively  small, 
as  is  also  the  annual  maintenance  charge,  while  the 
educational  and  social  benefits  are  very  large. 


REORGANIZATION   OF  RURAL   EDUCATION    255 

A  state  reorganization.  With  about  twenty  such 
schools  to  a  county,  instead  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  Httle 
ones,  or  somewhere  near  two  thousand  consolidated 
schools  instead  of  fifteen  thousand  district  schools  to 
an  average  state,  the  whole  nature  of  rural  life  and 
education  could  be  redirected  and  revitahzed  in  a  dec- 
ade, and  life  on  the  farm  could  be  given  a  new  mean- 
ing. Such  a  change  would  also  dispense  with  the  need 
for  the  services  of  from  five  to  six  thousand  of  the 
cheapest  and  most  poorly  educated  of  the  rural  teach- 
ers, as  well  as  of  some  twenty-five  thousand  district- 
school  trustees,  both  of  which  would  be  educational 
gains  of  great  importance  and  significance. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Is  the  rural  population  in  your  county  or  conununity  increasing 

or  decreasing? 

2.  Are  new  school  districts  still  being  formed  by  the  subdivision 
of  old  districts?   Is  the  opposite  process  taking  place? 

3.  How  many  one-room  schools  in  your  county?  How  many  in  the 
state?   What  is  the  average  per  county? 

4.  How  many  district-school  trustees  (directors)  does  this  imply? 

5.  Are  your  school  trustees  paid  for  their  services?  What  does  this 
amoimt  to  per  year,  per  county?   For  the  whole  state? 

6.  Do  you  have  district  trustees'  institutes  each  year?  What  do 
these  cost?  How  useful  are  they? 

7.  Have  you  had  any  experience  with  the  consolidation  of  schools? 
What  was  the  nature  of  it? 

8.  Do  you  think  of  any  other  advantages  of  consolidation  than 
those  given?  Any  other  disadvantages? 

9.  Which  is  the  more  expensive,  —  a  $1200  school  for  an  average 
daily  attendance  of  15,  or  a  $10,000  school  for  an  average  daily 
attendance  of  130? 


CHAPTER  XI 

A  NEW  CURRICULUM 

One  of  our  distinguished  American  scientists,  now  the 
chancellor  of  one  of  our  large  universities,  once  told  the 
writer  that  in  one  of  the  first  institute  talks  he  ever 
gave  he  pointed  out  to  the  teachers  present  the  great 
overemphasis  of  grammar  in  our  public-school  work, 
and  the  desirability  of  reducing  the  time  then  given  to 
this  subject.  At  the  close  of  the  address  a  school  prin- 
cipal came  forward  and  wrung  his  hand,  saying  that 
he  agreed  with  him  thoroughly,  and  had  for  years  been 
advocating  such  a  reduction,  in  order  that  more  time 
might  be  secured  for  work  in  arithmetic.  The  writer 
once  had  a  similar  experience,  except  that  the  subjects 
involved  were  exactly  reversed. 

The  old  curriculum.  These  two  subjects  of  arith- 
metic and  grammar  have  for  too  long  occupied  a  place 
of  first  importance  in  both  city  and  rural  education. 
In  the  amount  of  time  consumed,  and  in  the  emphasis 
given  to  minor  details,  geography  has  long  been  a  close 
third.  The  amount  of  time  given  to  each  of  these  three 
subjects,  and  the  great  emphasis  which  has  been  placed 
upon  relatively  unimportant  information,  have  been 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  real  value  of  these  subjects 
of  study.  These  three  subjects,  together  with  reading, 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  257 

writing,  spelling,  history,  and  book  physiology,  have 
for  long  constituted  not  only  the  backbone,  but  almost 
the  entire  content  of  our  elementary-school  knowledge. 
Eight  or  nine  years  of  child  life  have  been  devoted  to 
the  study  of  these  subjects  alone.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  great  world  of  nature  and  the  increasing  needs  of 
practical  life  have  remained  almost  untaught  and  un- 
noticed. With  the  great  changes  which  have  taken 
place  during  the  past  half-century  in  almost  all  of  the 
conditions  surrounding  rural  life,  is  it  much  wonder 
that  our  rural  people  have  lost  interest  in  the  type  of 
education  usually  provided  in  their  rural  schools? 

Instead  of  trying  to  adapt  the  school  instruction  to 
the  particular  needs  of  rural  and  village  pupils,  our 
schools  have  remained  stationary  and  traditional  in 
type.  In  the  cities  notable  advances,  on  the  whole, 
have  been  made,  though  highly  traditional  city-school 
systems  of  the  old  type  still  abound.  Among  the  rural 
and  town  schools,  despite  a  few  noteworthy  examples 
of  reconstructed  schools  here  and  there,  the  conditions 
generally  show  much  less  improvement.  What  were 
once  the  only  subjects  of  instruction  continue  to  be 
taught,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  other  subjects,  and 
in  much  the  old  way.  Teachers  teach  as  they  were 
taught,  and  what  they  were  taught,  and  communities 
continue  to  demand  instruction  in  the  same  old  sub- 
jects, though  profoundly  dissatisfied  with  the  results 
obtained. 

Why  such    instruction  continues.    Such  instruc- 


258  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tion  continues  largely  because  of  the  great  number 
of  untrained  teachers  employed;  because  of  the  lack 
of  ability  to  improve  itself,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  characteristics  of  the  district  system;  and 
because  of  the,  as  yet,  somewhat  general  lack  of  any 
effective  educational  supervision  for  our  rural  and 
small  village  schools.  Lacking  intelligent  direction, 
these  schools  have  merely  drifted  along  in  the  old  way. 
To  the  untrained  or  the  poorly  educated  teacher,  both 
of  which  abound,  such  formal  book  instruction  is  not 
only  by  far  the  easiest  kind  of  instruction  to  give,  but 
is  also  the  only  kind  of  instruction  she  knows  how  to 
impart.  Of  rather  limited  general  education  herself, 
lacking  in  professional  insight,  working  without  intelli- 
gent guidance,  possessing  little  or  no  grasp  of  modern 
economic  tendencies  or  of  community  social  needs,  and 
following  city -type  textbooks  and  a  uniform  course  of 
study,  the  young  girl  teacher  is  not  to  be  greatly 
blamed  if  she  teaches  the  way  she  was  taught  and  main- 
tains a  traditional  school.  To  maintain  discipline  and 
get  the  pupils  through  the  course  of  study  have  been 
for  long  the  chief  aim  and  end  of  rural-school  in- 
struction, and  until  recently  our  normal  schools,  al- 
most unconsciously,  have  been  preparing  their  girls  to 
fit  into  only  such  a  traditional  type  of  school. 

Recent  attempts  to  change  these  conditions.  Within 
the  past  two  decades  there  has  been  a  marked  attempt 
to  improve  conditions  and  to  change  the  nature  of 
the  work  done  in  our  rural  and  village  schools.  There 


A  NEW  CURRICULUM  259 

has  been  much  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  a  deter- 
mined effort  has  been  made,  within  the  past  nine  or  ten 
years,  to  arouse  trustees,  teachers,  and  school  oflScers 
to  some  proper  conception  of  the  needs  and  purposes 
of  rural  education.  Legislation  has  also  been  invoked 
to  this  end.  Trustees'  institutes  have  been  provided 
for  in  a  number  of  states,  agricultural  instruction  has 
been  ordered  introduced  into  the  schools  and  inserted 
in  the  examination  subjects  for  teachers,  and  many 
normal  schools  have  at  last  begun  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion seriously  to  what  ought  to  be  their  prime  function, 
—  that  of  educating  teachers  for  the  rural  and  town 
schools  of  the  state.  The  subject  has  also  been  con- 
sidered seriously  by  superintendents'  conventions, 
farmers'  institutes,  the  state  and  local  Granges,  and  in 
the  magazines  and  the  public  press. 

As  a  result  of  these  many  efforts  more  progress,  nat- 
urally, has  been  made  in  some  places  than  in  others, 
and  here  and  there  one  finds  to-day  examples  of  recon- 
structed rural  schools  which  are  rendering  valuable 
rural  service.  The  percentage  of  such  schools  in  the 
total  number,  though,  is  still  quite  small,  and  the 
best  examples  of  such  are  the  consolidated  schools,  de- 
scribed in  chapters  x  and  xiv.  The  little  one-teacher 
rural  school,  generally  speaking,  has  as  yet  been  but 
little  touched  by  the  new  movement.  Generations  of 
educational  traditions  are  hard  to  overcome,  new 
teachers  for  the  sevrice  have  to  be  trained,  the  district 
system  of  management  and  maintenance  interposes 


260  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

serious  difficulties  to  any  rapid  educational  progress, 
and  the  lack  of  any  efficient  or  effective  supervision  for 
rural  education,  except  in  those  states  having  a  mod- 
ern educational  organization,  almost  precludes  the 
possibility  of  superimposing  progress  from  above. 

The  old  traditional  curriculum.  This  old-type  tra- 
ditional form  of  rural  education  is  no  longer  adapted 
to  meeting  the  needs  of  modern  life,  and  the  sooner  it 
is  changed  and  the  rural  school  redirected  and  revital- 
ized, the  better  it  will  be  for  rural  life  and  for  rural 
education.  The  old  traditional  school-subjects  now 
monopolize  too  much  of  the  school  time,  much  useless 
matter  should  be  eliminated,  the  purpose  of  the  in- 
struction in  some  of  the  subjects  should  be  entirely 
changed,  and  all  of  the  old  subjects  should  be  reduced 
to  their  proper  place  in  a  modern  school  curriculum. 
In  the  place  of  the  matter  thus  eliminated,  new  sub- 
jects of  instruction,  dictated  by  modern  needs,  should 
be  introduced. 

Arithmetic.  The  redirection  of  the  old  subjects  of  in- 
struction is  of  first  importance.  The  great  overempha- 
sis of  instruction  in  arithmetic  should  be  stopped,  and 
the  problems  given  should  be  made  practical  by  reduc- 
ing them  to  farm,  rather  than  city,  terms.  Few  people 
ever  have  use  for  more  arithmetic  than  addition,  sub- 
traction, multiplication,  division,  fractions,  and  per- 
centage, and  it  is  a  waste  of  precious  time  to  teach 
more.  If  all  arithmetic  were  eliminated  until  the  third 
grade,  much  of  the  emphasis  thereafter  put  upon  men- 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  261 

tal  work  in  the  four  fundamental  operations  and  sim- 
ple fractions,  concrete  problems  dealing  with  home 
conditions  introduced,  and  the  upper-grade  arithmetic 
shaded  off  into  drawing,  manual  work,  domestic 
science,  and  agricultural  practice,  it  would  be  a  great 
gain  in  arithmetical  as  well  as  in  practical  training,  and 
would  result  in  a  great  saving  of  time  for  other  more 
important  instruction.  The  reckoning  of  farm  crops, 
problems  of  threshing  and  harvesting,  problems  deal- 
ing with  the  cost  of  growing  farm  crops,  dairy  and  poul- 
try problems,  horse  and  cattle  problems,  problems  re- 
lating to  birds  and  insects  or  weeds  and  field  crops, 
gardening  and  fruit-raising  problems,  carpentry  and 
painting  problems,  weighing  and  sale  problems,  farm- 
labor  problems,  drainage  and  fertilizing  problems,  — 
such  are  types  of  community  problems  which  may  be 
made  concrete  and  vital,  and  with  which  every  coun- 
try community  abounds.  Some  day,  when  our  farm- 
ers grow  wise  enough  to  see  that  uniform  textbooks 
for  a  state  are  not  the  best  things  for  the  rural  schools, 
they  will  discard  the  city  textbook  and  demand  arith- 
metics, readers,  and  other  books  written  primarily  for 
use  in  the  rural  schools. 

Grammar  and  language.  As  for  formal  grammar, 
this  could  be  eliminated  almost  entirely,  and  with  no 
real  educational  loss.  No  greater  educational  fallacy 
has  been  imposed  upon  us  than  the  time-worn  asser- 
tion that  the  study  of  English  grammar  teaches  chil' 
dren  to  speak  and  write  the  English  language  correctly. 


262  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Grammar  is  the  logic  of  a  language,  and  as  such  is  a 
study  for  mature  rather  than  for  immature  minds.  It 
would  be  a  decided  gain  if  all  formal  grammar,  as  such, 
were  postponed  to  at  least  the  eighth  year,  and  better 
still  to  the  high  school.  This  does  not  mean  that  com- 
position and  language  study  would  not  be  taught,  but 
that  such  would  be  taught  rather  as  an  incident  to  the 
expression  of  the  ideas  the  children  have  obtained  from 
the  study  of  concrete  things.  One  may  come  to  use, 
habitually,  good  English  in  the  expression  of  his  ideas, 
and  still  be  almost  ignorant  of  the  rules  of  formal  gram- 
mar. Too  often  such  rules  and  such  study  interpose  a 
serious  obstacle  between  the  child  and  the  expression 
of  his  ideas,  and  confuse  and  impede  rather  than  help 
him  in  obtaining  that  facility  in  oral  and  written  ex- 
pression which  is  the  object  of  language  study.  A  great 
saving  of  school  time  for  other  and  better  purposes 
can  be  effected  here. 

Geography.  In  geography,  too,  much  time  is  given 
to  the  mere  memorization  of  useless  intellectual  lum- 
ber. A  boy  is  drilled  in  school  on  the  capes  and  bays 
of  the  coast  of  Maine,  the  products  of  California,  the 
geography  of  Central  America,  and  the  size  and  loca- 
tion of  the  countries  of  Europe.  He  memorizes  the  in- 
formation, and  makes  his  passing  mark  on  it.  Later  on 
when  there  is  a  big  fire  in  Bangor,  he  has  no  idea  as  to 
its  location;  when  it  is  proposed  in  Congress  to  remove 
the  tariff  on  lemons,  he  does  not  know  that  this  will 
affect  a  great  California  industry;  he  is  astonished 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  263 

when  you  tell  him  that  you  sail  almost  directly  south 
in  passing  through  the  Panama  Canal;  and  when  a 
war  breaks  out  in  the  Balkans,  he  has  no  idea  as  to 
where  the  Balkans  are  or  what  peoples  live  there.  His 
mind  has  been  "  disciplined  "  on  information  which  he 
forgets  as  soon  as  possible,  to  give  room  for  informa- 
tion, which,  to  him,  it  is  more  worth  while  to  know. 

Of  the  local  geography  of  his  own  environment,  he 
may  remain  supremely  ignorant,  and  of  soils,  roads, 
local  boundaries,  products,  hills  and  valleys,  water- 
courses, sense  of  direction,  climate,  seaports,  trade- 
centers,  industries,  and  the  intercommunication  and 
interdependence  of  peoples,  he  may  have  no  practical 
conception.  His  geography  has  been  book  knowledge, 
easily  forgotten  because  it  was  never  tied  up  with  his 
common  knowledge  and  his  home  environment.  A 
great  decrease  in  the  amount  of  time  givep  to  book  and 
map  geography,  arid  an  increase  in  the  amount  of  at- 
tention given  to  the  connecting  of  geographical  study 
with  the  rural  environment,  would  be  a  great  rural 
educational  gain.  Sand  tables  are  as  important  as 
maps,  and  out-of-door  study  is  here  of  the  first  impor- 
tance. No  one  of  the  old  studies  offers  such  fine  chances 
for  close  correlation  with  the  local  community  life. 
Too  often  we  mistake,  for  an  end  in  itself,  what  is 
merely  a  means  or  a  tool  for  securing  self -education, 
and  are  in  the  position  of  a  school  principal  the  writer 
once  knew,  who  refused  to  promote  a  bright  boy  from 
the  sixth  to  the  seventh  grade  because  he  had  studied 


264  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  geography  of  Asia  and  not  Africa,  though  there 
was  no  question  as  to  the  boy's  abiUty  to  do  the 
seventh-grade  work. 

Physiology  and  hygiene.  We  have  been  teaching 
physiology  for  nearly  half  a  century  in  our  schools, 
yet  of  how  little  practical  use  it  has  been  to  us!  The 
quiet  voting-out  of  the  open  saloon  which  recent  years 
have  witnessed  in  all  parts  of  the  country  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  asset  of  our  physiology  teaching.  We  have 
learned  the  names  and  the  number  of  our  bones,  the 
pairs  of  muscles  and  nerves,  and  the  anatomical  con- 
struction of  our  different  organs,  but  of  practical  hy- 
giene we  have  learned  but  little.  Our  teachers  are  not 
taught  such  practical  hygiene,  and  know  but  little 
about  it;  the  people  themselves,  as  a  mass,  know  but 
very  little  as  to  sanitary  conditions;  and  only  recently 
have  we  begun  to  direct  our  attention  to  the  proper 
form  of  physiology  instruction.  Most  of  this  new 
awakening  is  due  to  the  state  boards  of  health  and  to 
the  newspapers,  instead  of  to  the  schools. 

The  real  needs  in  such  instruction  are  hygienic,  rather 
than  anatomical.  How  many  bones  or  pairs  of  mus- 
cles or  nerves  we  have,  or  what  are  their  names,  are 
matters  of  no  consequence;  the  important  matter  is 
that  children  know  how  to  take  proper  care  of  their 
bones,  muscles,  and  nerves.  Still  more  important  are 
the  great  sanitary  problems,  particularly  of  rural  life. 
Many  rural  homes  and  many  rural  schoolhouses  do  not, 
as  yet,  have  even  the  rudiments  of  sanitary  arrange- 


HEALTH    DEFECTS    IN  CITY  AND   COUNTRY    CHILDREN    COMPARED 

Compiled  from  a  study  of  the  health  examinations  of  children  in  twenty-five 
American  cities  and  of  rural-school  children  in  five  American  states.  Only  in 
pediculosis  (head  lice)  and  iu  skin  diseases  do  the  city  children  show  greater  per- 
centage of  defects. 

(From  Woofter's  Teaching  in  Rural  Schools,  p.  299.) 


2646  A  NEW  CURRICULUM 

Need  for  better  health  knowledge.  The  recent  army  • 
draft  medical  examinations  have  given  us  a  rude  shock 
as  to  the  physical  condition  of  our  young  men.  Their 
lack  of  simple  hygienic  knowledge  was  also  clearly  re- 
vealed by  the  camp  life  and  discipline,  and  here  the 
boys  from  rural  districts  appeared  to  less  advantage 
than  did  city  boys.  In  the  first  draft,  approximately  one 
in  four  of  the  young  men  between  the  ages  of  21  and 
30,  the  time  when  a  young  man  should  be  in  the  prime 
of  physical  condition,  were  rejected  for  the  army  be- 
cause of  physical  defects  which  would  incapacitate  them 
for  the  life  of  a  soldier.  Others  who  were  accepted 
had  to  be  placed  in  developmental  battalions  to  bring 
them  up  to  physical  standard.  Had  our  young  women 
between  the  same  ages  been  called  up  for  important 
national  duty  there  is  reason  to  think  that  an  even 
larger  percentage  among  them  would  have  been  re- 
jected. 

Such  tests  of  a  nation's  stamina  are  startling,  and 
these  revelations  as  to  the  physical  incapacity  of  our 
young  men,  together  with  the  many  recent  studies  of 
rural  and  city  health  conditions,  have  given  a  new  em- 
phasis to  the  demand  for  constructive  health  work  in 
our  schools  and  better  health  instruction  by  teachers  to 
the  children.  Child  and  rural  hygiene  is  a  new  study 
which  rural  teachers  must  become  familiar  with,  and 
county  health  supervision  must  be  added  to  the  su- 
pervision of  geography  and  arithmetic.  It  is  certainly 
of  equal  importance. 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  265 

ments.  Nowhere  more  than  in  the  open  country  is  there 
need  for  instruction  relating  to  soil,  water,  and  milk 
pollution;  to  the  general  unsanitary  conditions  of  the 
homes  and  yards;  to  the  importance  of  cleanliness  and 
fresh  air;  the  care  of  common  accidents  and  disorders; 
the  proper  care  of  the  sick;  and  to  the  baneful  effects 
of  improper  diet,  intemperance,  advertising  quacks, 
and  patent  medicines.  The  prevalence  of  hookworm 
in  the  South,  and  of  malaria  and  typhoid  everywhere 
as  rural  diseases,  emphasizes  the  importance  of  some 
such  sanitary  instruction.  How  and  what  to  eat,  the 
importance  of  fresh  air,  the  nature  and  prevention 
of  disease,  the  importance  of  proper  attention  to 
disorders,  and  the  evils  of  intemperance  are  types  of 
information  of  which  rural  people  stand  in  particular 
need,  and  boys  and  girls  on  leaving  school  should 
carry  such  practical  hygienic  knowledge  away  with 
them  and  apply  it  to  their  lives.  Such  information 
is  far  more  important  as  information,  far  more  useful 
for  life  purposes,  and  far  more  educative  to  youth  than 
the  location  of  Cape  Blanco,  the  rule  for  the  use  of 
the  objective  case,  or  the  ability  to  distinguish  the 
tibia  from  the  fibula. 

History.  In  history,  too,  the  great  field  of  national 
growth  and  of  agricultural  and  industrial  expansion, 
and  the  rich  field  of  civic  life  and  duties,  present  in- 
structional opportunities  too  important  for  teachers 
to  spend  time  in  memorizing  the  skeleton  of  history. 
Wars,    individual    battles,   and    unimportant    dates 


266 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


see 


good 


foimd 


ear 


liapa 


should  be  sacrificed  for  the  personal,  inspirational,  and 
national  sides  of  our  national  development.  The  study 
of  history  should  leave  a  patriotic  inspiration,  rather 
than  a  bundle  of  dry  facts. 
Reading.  In  reading,  also,  despite  a  recent  enrich- 
ment of  the  work, 
there  is  still  much 
room  for  improve- 
ment. Reading  is 
still  too  much  of  an 
art  in  itself,  instead 
of  a  tool  for  useful- 
ness in  other  school 
and  in  life  work. 
Pupils  are  too  fre- 
quently taught  to 
read  from  a  reader, 
but  a  love  for  read- 
ing and  a  habit  of 
seeking  informa- 
tion from. books  is 
not  developed  in 
them.  The  reading  work  of  our  rural  and  town  schools 
lacks  application,  content,  and  scope,  and  needs  to  be 
connected,  in  a  better  way,  with  good  literature  and 
with  the  other  work  of  the  school.  More  books  should 
be  read,  the  supplemental  reading  should  be  materially 
increased  in  quantity,  the  number  and  the  range  of 
outside  books  read  should  be  extended,  the  love  for 


I  found  a  good  ear  of  coro. 
Papa  tested  and  planted  It. 
It  had  even  rows. 
1  like  good  corn  and  some  day 
I  wnt  grow  It  on  my  farm. 


Fkj.  70.    A  READING  CHART  FOR  RURAL 
SCHOOLS 
(From  Miss  Field's  The  Corn  Lady.   Courtesy  of 
the  publisher t,  A.  Flanagan  Co.) 


A  NEW  CURRICULUM  267 

good  literature  should  be  built  up,  and  reading  as 
an  isolated  art  should  be  made  to  give  place  to 
reading  for  pleasure  and  for  use. 

Redirecting  the  school.  Such  changes  as  these  need 
to  be  made  in  the  old  traditional  subjects,  partly  to 
improve  the  instruction  in  them,  and  partly  to  make 
room  for  other  new  subjects  of  importance  for  modern 
life.  A  twentieth-century  civilization  cannot  be  advan- 
tageously maintained  on  an  early-nineteenth-century 
curriculum  and  type  of  school,  and  one  of  the  impor- 
tant duties  of  school  officers,  charged  with  the  admin- 
istration of  the  course  of  study,  is  to  cut  deeply  into 
these  old  traditional  subjects  and  to  redirect  the  teach- 
ing of  what  is  left.  The  reading  and  history  need  en- 
richment, physiology  needs  to  be  made  personal  and 
useful,  geography  needs  to  be  made  interpretive,  and 
the  arithmetic  and  language  work  should,  in  large  part, 
be  made  a  natural  outgrowth  of  other  instruction 
within  and  without  the  school.  In  the  place  of  the  in- 
struction eliminated,  new  subjects  of  instruction,  deal- 
ing with  twentieth-century  needs  and  problems,  should 
be  introduced,  and  teachers  secured  who  are  trained  to 
handle  them.  In  the  majority  of  our  cities  such  changes, 
redirections,  and  additions  have  been  made,  but  no- 
where are  such  changes,  redirections,  and  additions 
more  needed  than  in  our  rural  and  small-village  schools. 
The  special  necessities  of  life  on  the  farm,  the  peculiar 
needs  of  rural  and  small-village  life,  and  the  special 
need  of  interesting  country  children  in  country  life 


268  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

early,  all  contribute  to  make  such  a  redirection  of  the 
school  of  fundamental  importance  there. 

New  instructional  needs.  The  center  of  rural  civili- 
zation is  the  home  and  the  farm,  and  the  great  rural 
needs  relate  to  domestic  and  agricultural  life.  How  to 
make  better  homes,  how  to  live  more  happily  and 
better,  how  to  improve  the  farm  and  its  returns,  and 
how  to  provide  a  better  and  a  richer  life  for  people  in 
the  open  country,  are  the  fundamental  needs  of  rural 
communities  to-day.  As  was  stated  earlier  in  this 
book,  the  school,  if  it  is  to  be  a  vital  force  and  to  serve, 
must  relate  itself  to  the  community  in  which  it  is  lo- 
cated, and  must  so  shape  its  instruction  as  to  express 
and  minister  unto  these  same  fundamental  needs.  To 
do  this  there  should  be  added  to  the  course  of  study 
of  every  rural  school,  in  place  of  much  of  what  has 
been  and  too  often  still  is  taught,  good  instruction  in 
nature  study,  agriculture,  manual  training,  domestic 
science,  music,  and  play.  Just  what  should  be  included 
in  each  of  these  new  subjects  will  naturally  vary  some- 
what with  different  communities,  but  whatever  is  done 
certainly  should  not  be  a  mere  copy  of  what  has  been 
worked  out  for  the  cities. 

Nature  study  and  agriculture.  Nature  study,  school 
gardening,  and  agricultural  instruction  are  all  related 
to  one  another,  and  no  school  has  such  excellent  op- 
portunities for  effective  instruction  in  these  subjects 
as  our  rural  and  village  schools.  To  open  the  minds  of 
young  people  to  the  world  of  nature  about  them,  to 


Lesson  in  bedmaking. 


( Courtesy,  Rural  Manhood.) 

Class  in  table-serving. 
NEW   FORMS   OF   INSTRUCTION,   I 


A  model  farm  made  iu  a  country  school.  Page  Couuty,  Iowa,  school  work. 


Teaching  Arithmetic  with  a  Babcock  milk-tester. 
This  is  a  feature  of  the  instruction  in  a  one-teacher  country,  school  near 
Chokio,  Minn.     The  girls  in  this  school  study  cooking  and  sewing  also. 


NEW   FORMS   OP   INSTRUCTION,    II 


A  NEW  CURRICULUM  269 

make  them  observant  and  thoughtful,  and  to  give 
them  a  mass  of  practical  knowledge  relating  to  the 
soils,  the  plant  life,  and  the  animal  life  of  their  sur- 
roundings, are  the  fundamental  objects  in  such  instruc- 
tion. 

Beginning  at  first  with  generalized  nature  study  and 
involving  experimental  gardening  and  growing,  the 
work  should  gradually  shade,  during  the  sixth,  seventh, 
and  eighth  grades,  into  the  study  of  the  elements  of 
agriculture.  The  farm  life  and  farm  experiences  of  the 
community  offer  excellent  opportunities  for  observa- 
tion and  illustration  and  for  testing  and  applying;  and 
the  work  is  so  fruitful  of  possibilities  that,  if  well 
taught,  much  of  the  other  work  of  the  school  may  be 
made  to  hinge  about  this  center  of  scientific  informa- 
tion. Few  subjects  of  instruction  offer  such  golden 
opportunities  for  real  life-instruction  as  does  agricul- 
ture in  an  agricultural  community.  The  opportunities 
for  changing  a  dead  school  into  a  live  one,  by  such  in- 
struction, are  very  large  for  any  teacher  who  has  energy 
enough  to  find  out  what  to  do  and  insight  enough  to 
know  how  to  do  it. 

What  can  be  taught.  The  study  of  the  soils  of  the 
community,  with  reference  to  their  composition,  cul- 
tivation, fertilization,  drainage,  and  crop-producing 
qualities,  is  full  of  educational  possibilities.  The  study 
of  farm  and  garden  plants,  with  reference  to  varieties, 
soils,  tillage  conditions  for  growth,  common  diseases, 
harvesting,  costs  of  raising,  selection  and  care  of  seeds, 


270  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

and  values  for  different  purposes,  is  likewise  full  of 
educational  opportunities.  Similarly  the  study  of  the 
insects,  birds,  and  animal  life  of  the  community,  and 
their  habits  and  feeding  value,  can  be  made  alive  with 
interest.  The  care  of  chickens  and  the  principles  un- 
derlying the  poultry  industry  could  also  be  made  a 
study  of  much  value.  The  same  is  true  of  bees  and 
the  honey  industry.  Seed  and  soil  testing,  tests  of 
grasses  and  vegetables,  milk  tests,  experimental  studies 
of  molds  and  decay,  tests  of  sprays  for  plant  diseases, 
studies  of  fertilizers,  and  weather  records  and  maps, 
as  well  as  simple  problems  in  chemical  and  physical 
action,  are  types  of  scientific  studies,  lying  close  to  the 
home  and  the  farm,  which  could  be  carried  out  even 
in  small  one-teacher  rural  schools.  The  value  of  the 
science  workroom  attached  to  a  rural  school,  such  as 
is  shown  in  Figs.  50, 52, 53,  and  54  (pp.  211-16),  and  of 
a  good  school  site,  will  now  be  apparent.  Both  are 
almost  a  necessity  for  good  work  in  such  subjects. 

How  such  instruction  works.  In  a  few  of  our  schools 
such  instruction  had  been  made  so  alive  and  so  valu- 
able that  it  has  interested  the  whole  community, 
and  farmers,  who  have  not  before  visited  a  school  for 
years,  have  come  to  see  what  the  school  is  doing.  The 
school  gardens  and  schoolroom  have  become  demon- 
stration centers;  boys  in  particular,  but  girls  also,  have 
been  led  to  take  a  new  interest  in  farm  life  and  in  farm 
conditions.  Not  infrequently,  as  a  result  of  such  in- 
struction, they  have  been  able  to  excel  their  parents  in 


A   NEW   CURRICULUM  271 

some  form  of  agricultural  work.  When  a  father  finds 
that  he  has  been  beaten  in  a  contest  by  his  boy,  using 
new  practices  learned  at  school,  he  soon  takes  a  new 
interest  in  rural  education.  The  work  soon  leads  to 
contest  work  in  boys'  and  girls'  agricultural  clubs,  and 
to  entry  in  township,  county,  and  state  agricultural 
contests.  The  stimulating  mental  effect  of  such  ac- 
tivity can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

Domestic  science.  Equally  important  for  the  girls 
is  some  work  in  domestic  science,  given  with  particular 
reference  to  the  home  life  and  needs  of  children.  The 
nature  study,  school  gardening,  and  agricultural  work 
contain  much  that  is  preparatory  for  such  instruction. 
While  the  work  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  will 
naturally  differentiate  a  little  for  the  two  sexes,  espe- 
cially in  the  consolidated  schools,  much  of  it  can  still 
be  done  in  common,  and  with  advantage,  in  the  one- 
teacher  rural  school.  The  general  science,  the  garden- 
ing, the  milk  tests,  the  study  of  molds  and  decay,  the 
study  of  sprays  for  plant  diseases,  the  principles  of 
bacterial  action,  the  simple  problems  in  chemistry  and 
physics,  the  study  of  foods  and  food  materials,  the 
planning  of  kitchens  and  homes,  house  furnishing, 
house  sanitation,  household  accounts,  economy  in  pur- 
chasing and  marketing,  and  something  as  to  the  qual- 
ity of  textile  fabrics  and  their  adaptability,  —  these 
are  almost  equally  important  for  the  boys  and  the  girls 
in  our  rural  schools.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
farming  and  successful  and  happy  farm  life  are  essen- 


272  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tially  a  partnership  business  between  a  man  and  a 
woman,  and  the  success  of  the  business  depends  upon 
the  intelHgent  cooperation  of  each  of  the  partners.  The 
men,  too,  need  enlightenment  upon  some  of  these  topics 
even  more  than  do  the  women. 

Beyond  this  common  basis  of  knowledge,  the  girls 
should  be  given  elementary  instruction  in  the  house- 
hold arts,  in  household  management,  and  clothing  and 
decoration.  The  household  arts  ought  to  include  in- 
struction in  the  selection  and  care  of  food  materials, 
some  ideas  as  to  food  values,  the  preparation  of  foods 
for  workers  and  invalids,  canning  and  preserving, 
the  proper  serving  of  foods,  and  the  proper  care  of 
the  dining-room  and  kitchen.  Household  manage- 
ment ought  to  include  elementary  instruction  in  the 
proper  arrangement  and  care  of  the  house,  economical 
and  practical  furnishings,  house  cleaning  and  sanita- 
tion, laundry  work,  nursing  and  proper  care  of  the  sick, 
home  emergency  measures,  and  household  accounts. 
The  work  in  clothing  and  decoration  should  include 
simple  sewing,  the  use  of  patterns,  use  of  a  machine, 
simple  millinery,  some  study  of  textile  fabrics,  their 
adaptations  and  costs,  and  some  study  of  color  harmony 
and  design  in  clothing  and  in  house  furnishing. 

The  absolute  unadaptability  of  the  common-type 
one-room  rural  school  for  any  such  instruction  will  be 
at  once  apparent.  It  is  a  survival  of  the  past,  built  to 
meet  the  needs  of  an  earlier-nineteenth-century  text- 
book education.  If  we  propose  to  offer  a  twentieth- 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  878 

century  education,  the  school  needs  to  be  reconstructed 
entirely  and  to  be  given  an  entirely  new  equipment. 
Simple  sewing  alone  is  possible  on  the  desks  of  the  old' 
type  school.  For  this  newer  work  the  type  of  school 
building  shown  in  Fig.  50,  Figs.  52-54,  or  in  Figs.  72- 
74,  and  the  kind  of  equipment  described  in  chapter  ix, 
are  both  essential. 

Manual  training.  Manual  training  for  boys  is  also 
an  essential,  if  the  needs  of  modern  rural  education  are 
to  be  met.  Some  parts  of  the  work  might  be  taken  by 
the  girls  as  well,  as  some  facility  in  the  use  of  tools  is 
desirable  for  the  woman  as  well  as  for  the  man.  In  the 
consolidated  school,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  one- 
room  rural  school  as  well,  the  work  will  naturally 
differentiate  itself  into  work  which  the  boys  will  do 
somewhat  alone.  Besides  offering  a  desirable  physical 
relief  from  the  monotony  of  books  and  seat  work,  this 
work  ought  to  include  instruction  in  the  use  of  tools 
and  materials,  and  practical  work  in  construction  and 
repair  work  of  a  kind  common  on  the  farm.  It  should 
not  be  confined  to  wood  alone,  but  should  include 
leather.  A  little  paint  and  concrete  work  could  also 
be  included.  A  good  workbench  and  tools,  with  a 
grindstone  and  a  whetstone  for  their  care,  are  neces- 
sary; while  a  simple  set  of  tools  for  harness  and  shoe 
repair,  and  a  few  paint-brushes  and  trowels  are  desir- 
able. The  construction  work,  after  certain  funda- 
mental instruction,  should  be  applied  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  school,  the  farm,  and  the  home. 


274  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Again,  for  such  work,  the  inadequacy  of  the  typical 
rural  schoolhouse  and  its  equipment  will  at  once  be 
apparent.  Not  only  has  it  no  tools,  but  almost  no 
place  to  set  up  a  workbench,  even  if  the  tools  were  pro- 
vided. While  it  is  possible  to  set  up  a  workbench  in 
the  ordinary  schoolroom,  and  such  is  certainly  prefer- 
able to  no  manual  instruction  at  all,  the  need  of  the 
workroom,  such  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  50,  Figs.  52-54  or 
Fig.  74,  will  at  once  be  apparent.  In  the  consolidated 
schools  such  instruction  can  be  provided  for  with  ease, 
and  made  most  effective  in  the  training  of  youth. 
(See  pictures  of  the  Harlem  School,  in  chap,  xiv.) 

The  home-project  idea  and  work.  Another  very 
important  and  relatively  recent  addition  to  the  work 
of  our  rural  and  town  schools  is  home-project  work. 
Such  work  is  particularly  adaptable  to  rural  school 
work  and  reflects  directly  on  rural-life  problems.  By  the 
home  project  is  meant  the  determination,  by  teacher 
and  pupil,  upon  some  simple  piece  of  work  to  be  done 
at  home,  such  as  making  something  useful  of  concfete 
or  wood,  or  still  better  upon  some  simple  but  controlled 
farm  experiment,  such  as  trying  out  some  particular 
crop  or  determining  yield  under  set  conditions,  or  the 
improvement  of  production  of  a  certain  area  of  corn 
or  a  certain  number  of  rows  of  potatoes  in  the  parent's 
field.  Hog  and  chicken  raising  represent  other  proj- 
ects often  used.  For  girls  the  project  may  consist  in 
some  phase  of  the  home  work,  again  under  fixed  con- 
ditions. 


A   NEW  CURRICULUM  274a 

In  each  case  the  project  is  definitely  determined  upon 
and  the  conditions  under  which  it  is  to  be  carried  on  are 
definitely  fixed  in  advance.  Not  infrequently  the  pupil 
works  in  competition  with  father  or  mother,  and  usu- 
ally shows  them,  in  the  end,  new  and  better  ways  of 
doing  things.  A  commercial  value  is  usually  calcu- 
lated out  for  all  that  is  done,  and  this  is  valuable  not 
only  as  teaching  thrift  and  awakening  a  sense  of  the 
value  of  labor,  but  as  teaching  the  elements  of  farm 
accounting  as  well. 

Such  work  has  very  valuable  educational  bearings, 
keeps  boys  and  girls  interested  in  what  is  a  form  of 
educational  extension,  and  is  a  great  unifier  of  home 
and  school  in  that  it  gets  the  child  interested  in  what 
the  parents  are  doing  and  the  parents  interested  in 
what  the  children  are  doing.  It  brings  school  and  home, 
and  teachers  and  parents  together.  It  provides  useful 
manual  and  intellectual  employment  at  home,  and 
tends  to  teach  fundamental  agriculture,  home  eco- 
nomics, and  industrial  principles  and  t  ain  pupils  for 
successful  farm  and  home  management  and  operation. 

Organized  play.  Organized  play  is  another  desirable 
addition  to  the  curriculum  of  our  rural  schools.  The 
children  do  not  need  the  play  so  much  for  the  sake 
of  mere  exercise,  because  most  rural  children  have 
plenty  of  mere  muscular  exercise.  The  need  from  the 
exercise  point  of  view  is  greater  in  the  consolidated 
schools,  because  there  transportation  usually  takes 
the  place  of  walking.  The  great  play  needs  are  educa- 


2746         RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tional  and  social,  and  not  merely  physical.  A  common 
sight  around  a  rural  schoolhouse  is  a  little  bunch  of 
children  huddled  up  together  against  the  schoolhouse, 
at  noon  and  at  recess,  doing  nothing,  and  with  almost 
no  initiative  to  action  or  group  activity.  Rural  chil- 
dren carry  into  the  school  the  rural  isolation  and  rural 
lack  of  cooperative  effort,  and  they  need  that  train- 
ing in  wholesome  play  which  will  awaken  the  play 
instinct,  develop  group  activity  and  individual  initia- 
tive and  give  grace  to  the  carriage  of  the  body  as 
well.  Some  playground  apparatus  ought  to  be  pro- 
vided for  every  rural-school  ground.  This  need  not  be 
expensive,  and  part  of  it  could  be  made  with  advan- 
tage in  the  manual-training  work  of  the  school  itself. 
Basketball,  volley  ball,  indoor  baseball,  and  football 
are  possible  in  any  school,  and  swings,  rings,  hurdles, 
and  parallel  bars  could  be  provided  without  much  ex- 
pense. A  consolidated  school  should  have  all  of  these, 
with  tennis  courts  and  a  ball-ground  in  addition. 

The  supervision  to  be  given  schoolyard  play  nat- 
urally differs  somewhat  with  the  different  ages  of 
the  children.  With  the  little  ones  the  teacher  must  in- 
itiate and  assist  and  guide  and  keep  interest  going, 
and  teach  them  how  to  play  many  simple  games  suited 
to  their  ages.  The  middle  groups  are  harder  to  handle, 
and  must  be  allowed  to  follow  much  their  own  wishes, 
so  long  as  this  is  wise  and  not  harmful.  The  older  pu- 
pils need  starting  and  direction,  but  much  less  super- 
vision, and  the  girls  need  more  attention  than  do  the 
boys. 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  275 

Few  things  do  so  much  as  organized  play  to  develop 
a  school  morale,  bring  out  timid  and  backward  pupils, 
transform  the  schoolyard  bully  into  a  useful  person, 
create  good  feeling,  teach  self-control,  and  develop  in 
pupils  the  qualities  needed  for  good  citizenship.  The 
school  playground  can  be  made  a  valuable  aid  in 
civic  training. 

The  new  and  the  old  compared.  The  comparative 
value  of  the  new  and  the  old  instruction  is  striking. 
One  prepares  directly  for  usefulness  and  efficiency  in 
life,  while  the  other  does  not.  If  the  new  instruction 
were  well  introduced,  it  would  not  only  prove  most  at- 
tractive to  young  people,  but  it  would  be  possible  to 
center  about  it  much  of  the  old  traditional  instruc- 
tion, over  which  we  have  worked  so  hard  and  so  long. 
If  arithmetic  were  omitted  almost  entirely  until  the 
third  grade;  then  about  three  years  of  work  given  in 
the  use  of  the  four  fundamental  operations,  fractions, 
and  percentage;  then,  beginning  with  the  sixth  grade, 
omitted  almost  entirely  as  a  subject  of  study,  but  ap- 
plied continually  thereafter  in  the  work  in  agriculture, 
domestic  science,  manual  training,  and  drawing;  — 
how  easy  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  could  be  made, 
and  what  an  amount  of  time  could  be  saved  for  instruc- 
tion much  more  worth  while.  If,  also,  formal  grammar 
were  banished  almost  entirely  from  the  elementary 
school,  and  what  little  was  retained  were  used  by  the 
teacher  to  illustrate  usage,  and  the  oral  and  written 
language  work  were  then  based  on  what  the  pupils 


276  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

knew  and  were  doing,  how  easy  language  teaching 
would  become,  and  what  a  vast  amount  of  time  and 
energy  would  be  saved  for  more  useful  employments. 
Why  not  have  oral  and  written  language  work  on  set- 
ting a  hen,  managing  an  incubator,  selecting  seed- 
corn,  raising  alfalfa,  shearing  lambs,  making  an  apron, 
baking  bread,  testing  milk,  mending  harness,  or  on  how 
to  make  a  pigeon  box? 

Possible  correlations.  Around  these  new  subjects 
of  instruction  much  of  the  old  instruction  could  be 
correlated.  Arithmetic,  language  work,  and  much  of 
the  work  in  physiology  and  hygiene,  geography,  and 
drawing  could  be  closely  correlated  with  the  work  in 
agriculture,  domestic  science,  and  manual  training. 
Some  of  the  reading  could  also  be  so  correlated.  This 
would  then  leave  history,  literature,  and  music  as  the 
inspirational  and  cultural  subjects  of  the  school.  One 
group  of  studies  would  be  for  practical  training,  and 
of  direct  vocational  value;  the  other  for  inspiration, 
amusement,  and  cultural  ends.  Such  a  change  and 
redirection  of  rural  education,  either  in  the  one-room, 
one-teacher  school  or  the  school  of  the  consolidated 
type,  would  prove  of  inestimable  value  to  rural  chil- 
dren, and  ultimately  to  rural  life  as  well. 

How  far  is  such  redirection  possible?  How  far  such 
a  redirection  of  rural  education  can  be  accomplished 
with  the  one-teacher  district  school  as  the  unit  is  a 
question.  Something,  of  course,  can  be  done,  especially 
in  the  county-system  states,  but  in  the  strong  district- 


A   NEW   CURRICULUM  277 

system  states  and  in  states  where  low  salaries  and  un- 
trained teachers  are  the  rule,  the  results  are  likely  to 
bear  but  little  relation  to  the  amount  of  energy  ex- 
pended. Given  a  poorly  educated  and  an  untrained 
teacher,  who  has  gained  her  stock  of  educational  ideas 
by  preparing  for  the  county  teachers'  examination;  a 
typical  one-room,  box-like,  rural  schoolhouse;  finan- 
cial support  derived  largely  from  local  sources;  the  dis- 
trict-trustee system  of  control;  and  a  county  superin- 
tendent nominated  at  the  primary,  and  elected  at  a 
general  election,  and  for  two-year  terms;  and  we  have 
a  combination  which  can  hardly  be  excelled  for  pro- 
ducing and  maintaining  inefficient  rural  service.  The 
redirection  of  rural  schools  under  such  conditions  calls 
for  almost  superhuman  powers. 

On  the  other  hand,  given  a  normal-trained  or  other- 
wise well  educated  teacher,  with  some  adequate  grasp 
of  rural  needs  and  problems;  an  intelligent  community, 
willing  to  pay  for  good  schools;  and  a  school  building 
which  has  either  been  built  or  reconstructed  to  meet 
modern  educational  needs,  such  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  50, 
Figs.  52-54,  Fig.  69,  or  Figs.  72-74;  and  it  is  then  pos- 
sible to  create  a  new  type  of  rural  one-room  school. 
Given,  in  addition,  an  effective  system  of  township  or 
county  supervision,  and  it  is  possible  to  make  such  a 
redirected  school  as  efficient  as  small  one-room  rural 
schools  can  be  made.  If,  however,  large  educational 
efficiency  and  as  high  a  grade  of  education  for  rural 
children  as  for  city  children  is  desired,  then  the  con- 


278  RURAL  LIFE]  AND   EDUCATION 

solidated  school,  such  as  is  described  in  chapters  x  and 
XIV,  must  be  instituted.  It  is  only  in  such  consoli- 
dated schools  that  the  country  child  will  ever  obtain 
an  education  which,  for  him,  is  the  equal  of  that  en- 
joyed to-day  by  the  city  child,  and  only  by  means  of 
such  redirected  education  will  the  chief  present  ob- 
stacles to  keeping  country  boys  and  girls  on  the  farm 
be  overcome. 

The  rural  high  school.  When  we  turn  from  the  ele- 
mentary school  to  the  rural  high  school,  another  prob- 
lem in  the  redirection  of  rural  education  at  once  faces 
us.  A  separate  chapter  could  be  written  on  the  rural 
high  school  alone,  but  the  limits  of  this  book  forbid; 
still  more,  for  our  purposes  it  is  not  necessary.  The 
same  principles  which  apply  for  the  elementary  school 
apply  for  the  high  school  as  well.  All  over  our  land 
to-day  are  high  schools,  located  in  villages  which  are 
the  centers  of  distinctly  rural  communities,  and  which 
are  offering  only  an  old-style  course  of  instruction.  The 
chief  result  of  such  instruction,  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  farm,  is  to  stimulate  the  cityward  tendency  among 
the  young  people.  Almost  nothing  relating  to  farm 
life  is  taught;  almost  everything  relates  to  prepara- 
tion for  college,  the  life  of  the  professions,  or  a  life  of 
cultured  ease. 

Book  instruction  almost  entirely  characterizes  the 
work  offered.  Four  yeais  of  Latin,  two  of  some  other 
language,  four  of  English,  four  of  history,  two  of  math- 
ematics, and  one  of  science,  with  j)erhaps  a  couple 


'      A   NEW   CURRICULUM  279 

of  years  of  commercial  work,  characterize  the  usual 
small-village  or  rural  high  school.  Excepting  the  sci- 
ence, all  the  subjects  are  textbook  subjects,  and  are 
the  cheapest  things  the  school  could  offer.  A  room,  a 
stove,  and  a  teacher  represent  almost  the  entire  ex- 
pense for  instruction.  In  the  city  high  schools,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  find  many  of  these  new  subjects  of 
study  well  introduced.  There  we  find  good  laboratories 
existing  for  instruction  in  the  different  sciences,  and 
manual  training  and  domestic  science  in  all  of  their 
important  aspects  are  taught.  A  number  of  city  high 
schools  have  also  recently  introduced  agriculture,  not 
because  of  its  practical  value  for  city  children,  but  be- 
cause of  its  superior  value  as  a  means  of  mental  train- 
ing. The  village  high  school,  though,  remains  highly 
traditional,  and  offers  an  excellent  preparation  for  de- 
serting the  farm  and  going  to  the  city  to  live.  Its  work 
bears  but  little  relation  to  rural  life  or  rural  needs. 

Redirecting  the  high  school.  The  same  redirection 
of  education  is  needed  for  the  village  and  rural  high 
school  as  for  the  rural  elementary  school.  As  in  the 
elementary  school,  the  high  school  which  ministers  to 
rural  and  village  needs  should  relate  itself  to  the  life  of 
the  community  which  supports  it,  and  for  whose  bet- 
terment it  alone  exists.  There  is  little  need  for  instruc- 
tion in  Latin  in  such  schools,  and  probably  not  for 
German  either.  The  English  needs  redirection,  and 
the  history  reduction  and  redirection.  A  course  deal- 
ing with  social,  economic,  industrial,  and  political 


280  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

problems  should  be  introduced.  Music,  art,  and  phys- 
ical education  should  be  added. 

The  science  work  needs  to  be  expanded.  Agricul- 
ture, home  economics,  and  manual  work  should  be  in- 
troduced, and  taught  in  a  more  thorough  and  more 
extended  manner  than  in  the  grades.  The  work  in 
these  subjects,  begun  in  the  grades,  should  be  extended 
and  carried  on  in  the  high  school,  into  lines  of  advance- 
ment not  possible  in  the  grades.  For  the  study  of  agri- 
culture, barns,  a  greenhouse,  a  dairy  laboratory,  and 
liberal  acreage  are  now  needed;  for  domestic  science, 
good  kitchens,  dining-room,  sewing-room,  and  an  art- 
room  are  desirable;  for  manual  training,  good  facili- 
ties for  woodworking,  forging,  farm  blacksmithing, 
and  concrete  work  are  necessary.  A  good  illustrative 
museum  of  agricultural,  textile,  mechanical,  and  com- 
mercial material  would  be  a  very  desirable  addition. 

The  country  boy  who  goes  to  the  city.  The  question 
may  naturally  arise,  What  about  the  boy  or  girl  who  is 
not  destined  to  remain  on  the  farm?  This  is  a  good 
question.  While  but  few  city  children  will  ever  be- 
come farmers,  and  most  country  children  will  find  their 
place  on  the  farm,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  true 
that  not  all  country  children  will  be  needed  on  the 
farm,  and  some  are  of  such  type  that  their  largest 
future  lies  elsewhere.  Should  all,  then,  be  trained 
as  though  all  were  to  become  farmers  and  farmers* 
wives? 

What,  after  all,  is  education?  Is  it  merely  the  ac- 


A  corner  in  the  blacksiuitli  slioj).  High  School,  Colebrook,  N.H. 


A  corner  in  the  carpenter  shop.  High  School,  Colebrook,  N.H. 
RURAL   HIGH-SCHOOL   INSTRUCTION,   I 


Class  in  sewing.     High  School,  Colebrook,  N.II. 


Class  iu  live-stock,  judging  dairy  cows  at  the  Waterford,  Pa.,  High  School. 
RURAL  HIGH-SCHOOL  INSTRUCTION,   II 


A  NEW   CURRICULUM  281 

cumulation  of  a  stock  of  traditional  knowledge  for  pos- 
sible use  later  in  life,  or  is  education  the  living  of  life 
and  life's  experiences,  in  the  best  sense  of  these  terms, 
as  we  go  along?  Is  education  the  mere  memorization 
of  facts,  or  is  it  also  the  awakening  of  the  power  to 
think,  and  the  refining  of  one's  practical  judgments, 
with  a  view  to  preparation  for  real  usefulness  in  life? 
An  answer  to  these  questions  will  answer  the  other 
question.  Education,  unrelated  to  one's  environment 
and  daily  life,  is  bookish  and  likely  to  be  ineflFective; 
education  closely  tied  up  with  one's  richest  life  experir 
ences,  whatever  these  may  be,  is  likely  to  prove  effec- 
tive anywhere.  It  really  matters  little  whether  the  fu- 
ture man  or  woman  lives  on  the  farm  or  in  the  city,  for 
the  kind  of  training  which  will  adapt  a  man  or  woman 
to  life  in  the  open  country  will  prove  useful  anywhere; 
and  it  will  prove  useful  largely  because  it  has  been 
effective  in  awakening  thinking,  establishing  stand- 
ards, and  refining  judgments. 

QUESTIONS    FOR    DISCUSSION 

1.  Do  you  agree  with  either  of  the  teachers  mentioned  in  the  first 
paragraph  of  this  chapter?   Why? 

2.  How  long  has  it  been  since  you  have  had  need,  in  your  business 
Hfe  outside  of  school  work,  for  any  arithmetical  knowledge 
beyond  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  division,  simple 
fractions,  and  percentage? 

3.  Aside  from  your  school  work,  how  much  use  do  you  ever  have 
for  the  technical  rules  of  grammar,  or  for  parsing  and  analysis? 

4.  Is  it  true  that  the  study  of  English  grammar  trains  young  peo- 
ple to  use  the  English  language  correctly? 

5.  What  should  be  the  main  purpose  in  teaching  reading? 

6.  What  should  be  the  main  purpose  in  teaching  geography? 


282  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

7.  How  far  is  the  maintenance  of  discipline  and  getting  pupils 
through  the  course  of  study:  — 

(a)  The  ends  you  set  up  in  your  school  work? 
(6)  The  community  measure  of  your  efficiency? 

8.  What  would  you  need  to  do  to  change  such  standards? 

9.  How  far  does  your  course  of  study  prepare  pupils  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  modern  life  of  which  they  probably  will  form  a  part? 

10.  Do  you  use  such  problems  in  arithmetic  as  are  given  on  page 
261?  If  so,  where  do  you  get  them? 

11.  Do  you  think  there  would  be  a  gain  if  different  kinds  of  arithme- 
tics and  readers  were  used  in  country  schools,  from  those  used  in 
city  schools?  Why? 

12.  How  important  do  you  make  the  local  geography?  How  could 
you  connect  such  teaching  with  community  welfare? 

13.  Why  is  hygiene  of  particular  importance  for  rural  schools? 

14.  Why  is  a  redirection  of  the  old  subjects  of  the  school  curriculum 
particularly  desirable  for  country  children? 

15.  Have  you  ever  tried  to  change  a  dead  school  into  a  live  one 
by  means  of  nature  study,  school  gardening,  and  agriculture? 
What  did  you  do,  and  how  did  it  work? 

16.  Aside  from  the  practical  value  of  the  knowledge,  what  s  the  edu- 
cational value  of  such  studies  as  agriculture,  gardening,  manual 
training,  and  domestic  science  in  developing  practical  judgments 
and  stimulating  intellectual  activity? 

17.  Wherein  will  instruction  in  manual  and  domestic  work  tend  to 
give  greater  skill  in  farm  work  and  make  farm  life  more  attrac- 
tive? 

18.  How  could  you  introduce  manual  work  into  a  rural  school,  if  you 
had  no  equipment,  and  no  place  for  it  was  allowed  in  the  course 
of  study? 

19.  What  kind  of  organized  plays  would  be  most  useful  with  rural 
children?   What  kind  are  feasible  in  a  small  school? 

20.  Are  the  rural  high  schools  of  your  community  real  rural  high 
schools,  or  old-type  city  high  schools  located  in  the  country?  If 
the  latter,  why  do  they  continue  to  be  such? 

21.  What  do  you  think  of  the  statement  that  a  good  education  is 
one  related  to  one's  environment? 

22.  What  do  you  understand  education  to  be  and  to  mean? 


CHAPTER  XII 

A  NEW  TEACHER 

A  new  teacher  needed.  In  reading  the  precedhig 
chapter  the  reader  has,  no  doubt,  had  raised  in  his 
mind  many  times  the  question  as  to  where  teachers 
are  to  be  found  who  can  do  such  work  for  our  rural 
schools.  The  question  is  a  pertinent  one,  and  how  to 
secure  an  efficient  corps  of  teachers  for  our  rural 
schools  is  one  of  the  most  important  problems  now 
before  us.  Without  intentional  disrespect  to  teachers 
now  engaged  in  rural  service,  it  must,  nevertheless,  be 
acknowledged  that  the  average  rural  teacher  of  to-day 
is  a  mere  slip  of  a  girl,  often  almost  too  young  to  have 
formed  as  yet  any  conception  of  the  problem  of  rural 
life  and  needs;  that  she  knows  little  as  to  the  nature  of 
children  or  the  technique  of  instruction;  that  her  edu- 
cation is  very  limited  and  confined  largely  to  the  old 
traditional  school-subjects,  while  of  the  great  and  im- 
portant fields  of  science  she  is  almost  entirely  ignorant; 
and  that  she  not  infrequently  lacks  in  those  qualities 
of  leadership  which  are  so  essential  for  rural  progress. 

Training  and  wages  compared.  When  we  compare 
her  training  and  her  services  with  the  wages  she  re- 
ceives we  are  led  to  feel,  however,  that  our  rural  com- 
munities get  all  or  more  than  they  pay  for,  despite  her 


284  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

many  deficiencies.  As  late  as  1918  the  average  yearly 
salary  of  all  teachers  in  the  United  States  was  as  low 
as  $606,  with  a  number  of  states  below  $400.  The  in- 
evitable result  of  such  salaries  is  poorly-trained  teach- 
ers, to  whom  teaching  is  too  often  but  a  temporary 
makeshift.  While  there  has  since  been  a  material  in- 
crease in  teachers'  salaries,  including  rural  teachers, 
the  conditions  in  many  of  our  states  still  make  the  re- 
tention of  adequately  prepared  teachers  in  the  coun- 
try almost  an  impossibility.  The  result  is  a  constant 
changing  of  teachers,  and  only  a  few  years  of  service 
for  those  who  teach.  Such  conditions  make  good 
schools  in  the  country  difficult  to  secure. 

While  recognizing  the  serious  deficiencies  of  the  aver- 
age rural  teacher  for  really  efl'ective  rural  service,  it 
must  still  be  admitted  that  the  services  rendered  are 
remarkable,  in  view  of  the  compensation  oflFered.  The 
wonder  is  that  so  many  young  women  of  energy  and 
moral  earnestness  can  be  attracted,  even  for  short 
periods,  to  such  a  poorly  paid  service,  and  that  they 
are  willing,  during  the  short  time  they  remain  in  the 
work,  to  spend  so  much  time  and  energy  in  study  and 
in  attempts  to  increase  their  personal  efficiency. 

The  natural  result.  One  result  of  such  low  standards 
and  wages  is  that,  in  a  number  of  our  important  agri- 
cultural states,  from  15  to  25  per  cent  of  the  teachers  in 
all  the  schools  are  new  to  the  work  each  year.  As  per- 
manency of  tenure  and  length  of  service  characterizes 
city-school  systems  rather  than  country  schools,  it  must 


A   NEW  TEACHER  285 

follow  that  from  20  to  30  per  cent  of  the  country 
teachers  are  beginners  each  year,  and  from  25  to  35 
per  cent  are  new  to  the  particular  position.  This  means 
that  short  terms  of  service  and  a  constant  recruiting 
of  the  ranks  with  beginners  must  characterize  the 
teaching  in  our  rural  schools.  The  best  of  the  class, 
instead  of  remaining  in  the  rural  schools  to  render 
service,  are  soon  drawn  to  the  cities,  where  better  pay 
and  practically  permanent  tenure  are  the  rule.  The 
inevitable  result  is  that  the  teaching  force  in  our  rural 
schools,  despite  notable  exceptions  here  and  there,  is 
as  a  class  made  up  of  either  the  older,  least  progressive, 
and  least  successful  teachers  on  the  one  hand,  or  of  the 
young,  poorly  educated,  and  inexperienced  teachers  on 
the  other. 

The  remedy.  So  long  as  we  retain  the  district  system 
of  organization  and  management,  there  is  little  help, 
generally  speaking,  for  this  situation.  While  some 
rural-school  districts  could  undoubtedly  afford  to  tax 
themselves  at  higher  rates,  and  offer  the  equivalent  of 
city  prices  for  their  teachers,  the  great  majority  of  our 
rural-school  districts  cannot  and  never  can  do  this. 
Still  more,  it  would  not  be  right  for  them  to  be  com- 
pelled to  do  so,  as  both  the  burden  of  taxation  and  the 
per  capita  cost  of  instruction  would  be  unreasonably 
high.  Under  a  system  of  consolidated  schools,  as  de- 
scribed in  chapter  x,  there  is  no  reason,  though,  why 
the  larger  taxation  area  could  not  pay  the  equivalent 
of  city  prices  for  their  teachers,  and  so  secure  and 


286  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

retain  the  best  that  are  available.  Cheap  teachers, 
short-term  contracts,  and  frequent  changes  will  never 
produce  good  rural  schools,  and  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant needs  in  rural  education  to-day  is  the  adoption 
of  some  larger  unit  of  organization  and  finance,  under 
which  our  rural  schools  may  be  enabled  to  pay  what 
the  best  teachers  can  command  elsewhere.  Then  only 
can  our  rural  schools  expect  special  preparation  for 
the  work,  and  then  only  may  they  expect  to  retain  the 
best  teachers  in  them.  The  consolidated  school,  if 
organized  along  the  right  lines,  offers  such  an  oppor- 
tunity for  rural  education,  while  the  district  unit  does 
not. 

Importance  of  the  wage  question.  The  pay  which 
teachers  in  our  rural  schools  receive,  by  which  is 
meant  their  annual  income  rather  than  their  monthly 
salary,  has  been  emphasized  first  because  better  pay 
is  an  absolute  prerequisite  to  any  material  improve- 
ment in  the  character,  training,  and  permanency  of  our 
rural  teaching  force.  Until  salaries  somewhat  com- 
parable with  city  salaries  are  paid,  we  cannot  expect 
the  kind  of  young  men  and  women  we  want  to  be 
attracted  to  rural  teaching  or  to  be  willing  to  spend  the 
years  necessary  in  study  and  preparation  for  the  work. 
The  best  of  those  who  get  started  in  rural  work  to-day 
tend  to  leave  for  the  city  at  the  first  opportunity,  or  to 
change  soon  to  other  better-paid  employments.  It 
requires  a  large  amount  of  devotion  to  an  ideal  to 
remain  as  a  rural-school  teacher,  despite  the  large 


A   NEW   TEACHER  287 

opportunities  for  usefulness,  when  the  work  does  not 
carry  a  living  wage.  We  may  talk  as  much  as  we  like 
about  giving  the  country  boy  and  country  girl  a 
chance,  and  of  equalizing  the  educational  advantages 
as  between  city  and  country  children,  but  this  can 
never  be  done  until  the  country  can  economically 
compete  with  the  city  for  teachers  and  for  educational 
leaders.  So  long  as  the  cities  can  continue  to  draw  off 
the  best,  by  reason  of  longer  terms,  better  salaries, 
better  tenure,  and  better  teaching  and  living  condi- 
tions, so  long  will  rural  education  be  at  a  discount,  and 
so  long  will  discerning  farmers  continue  to  send  their 
children  to  the  city  to  secure  the  better  educational 
advantages  offered  there. 

The  fact  that  the  present  low  salaries  and  poor  con- 
ditions surrounding  rural  education  are  wholly  unnec- 
essary, and  that  salaries  of  from  $900  to  $1500  a  year 
could  be  paid  rural  teachers,  and  good  educational 
conditions  provided,  if  a  proper  unit  of  educational 
organization  and  taxation  were  once  instituted,  makes 
the  present  conditions  all  the  more  inexcusable.  Once 
place  rural-school  teaching  on  a  financial  basis  com- 
parable with  that  of  the  cities,  and  we  can  then  de- 
mand almost  any  preparation  for  the  work,  within 
reason,  which  the  peculiar  necessities  of  the  case  seem 
to  require.  Teaching  in  the  country  is  not  different 
from  farming,  in  that  both  must  be  economically 
profitable  if  they  are  to  attract  and  retain  the  class  we 
want  to  keep  on  the  farm.  The  writer  has  known  many 


i88  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

good  teachers,  who  Hke  the  country  better  and  would 
much  prefer  to  teach  there,  but  who  simply  cannot 
afiFord  to  do  so  under  the  present  economic  conditions. 
Present  status  of  teacher  training.  When  we  turn 
from  the  pay  to  the  training  of  our  rural  teachers,  the 
situation  is  almost  equally  bad.  In  most  of  our  states 
the  standards  for  entering  the  work  are  low,  while  the 
means  provided  for  helping  and  improving  teachers  in 
service  are  wholly  inadequate.  Nowhere  is  good  edu- 
cational preparation  and  proper  professional  insight 
needed  more  than  in  our  rural  schools,  where  the 
teacher  must  work  alone  almost  the  whole  year 
through.  If  untrained  and  poorly  educated  teachers 
are  to  start  anywhere,  under  present  conditions,  it 
ought  to  be  in  the  cities,  where  there  are  superin- 
tendents, supervising  principals,  special  supervisors, 
teachers'  meetings,  and  study  classes  for  the  constant 
improvement  of  those  in  service.  The  cities,  however, 
do  not  need  to,  and  usually  will  not,  receive  such 
teachers.  A  good  high-school  education,  followed  by 
normal-school  training  or  by  an  apprenticeship  in  the 
country,  is  to-day  a  somewhat  general  prerequisite  to 
city  service.  For  the  country  schools,  on  the  other 
hand,  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  age  and  a  third- 
grade  county  teacher's  certificate,  obtained  by  coach- 
ing up  on  and  passing  an  examination  on  the  old 
common-school  subjects,  plus  the  good  will  of  some 
district  trustee,  is  about  all  that  is  necessary  to  enter 
the  service.  The  fact  that  the  new  teacher  too  often 


A  NEW   TEACHER  289 

lacks  general  education,  knows  almost  nothing  as  to 
rural  needs  and  problems,  has  little  or  no  professional 
insight  and  interest,  and  is  almost  wholly  ignorant  of 
the  great  worlds  of  science,  industry,  and  agriculture, 
counts  for  little  in  her  certification  or  her  employment. 
It  is  the  competition  of  such  teachers  which  keeps 
down  wages  and  drives  the  better  teachers  to  the 
cities  or  into  other  fields  of  service.  As  soon  as  it  can 
be  done,  the  county  examination,  as  a  means  of  enter- 
ing the  teaching  ranks,  ought  to  be  abandoned  in 
favor  of  certification  based  upon  having  first  obtained 
a  certain  minimum  of  general  education  and  profes- 
sional training.  The  further  continuance  of  such 
certificates  ought  also  to  be  based  upon  the  teachers 
showing  growth  in  knowledge  and  in  teaching  power. 
New  attention  to  the  rural-teacher  problem.  During 
the  past  ten  years,  new  attention  has  been  directed  to 
the  special  problem  of  preparing  teachers  for  service  in 
the  rural  schools.  As  the  complex  problems  of  rural 
life  and  rural  needs  have  dawned  upon  us,  we  have 
slowly  begun  to  realize  that  their  solution  not  only 
demands  a  new  type  of  rural  education,  but  that  edu- 
cation is  also  the  key  to  the  solution.  To  try  to  meet 
such  new  needs  the  State  of  Michigan,  in  1897,  first 
ordered  that  each  of  the  state  normal  schools  should 
organize  a  special  course  for  the  preparation  of  rural 
teachers.  In  1902,  the  Indiana  State  Normal  School 
made  similar  provision,  by  organizing  a  rural  school  in 
connection  with  its  normal  work.    In  1907,  the  State 


290  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Normal  School  at  Kirksville,  Missouri,  did  the  same 
thing.  This  Missouri  school  has  rendered  special 
service  to  rural  education,  and  the  rural-school  build- 
ing provided  is  described  in  some  detail  in  chapter  xiv. 
Since  these  beginnings,  a  number  of  other  state  normal 
schools  have  turned  their  attention  to  this  problem, 
though  the  number  doing  so  is  as  yet  altogether  too 
small.  In  states  where  the  consolidated  school  has 
developed  the  normal  schools  have  been  forced  to  turn 
their  attention  more  and  more  to  this  new  aspect  of 
rural  education,  and  to  offer  training  and  courses  that 
will  give  some  adequate  conception  of  the  problems  of 
rural  life.  The  training  that  will  best  prepare  for  city 
graded  work,  which  our  normal  schools  emphasize, 
will  not  best  prepare  for  rural  service.  The  special  ed- 
ucational and  social  needs  of  the  city  should  charac- 
terize one;  those  of  rural  life  the  other. 

Teachers'  training  classes.  Despairing  of  ever  se- 
curing enough  trained  teachers  for  the  schools  of  the 
state  through  the  regular  state  normal  schools,  New 
York,  in  1894,  provided  for  the  establishment  of 
teachers'  training  classes  in  the  high  schools  of  the 
state.  Maine  did  the  same  in  1901,  Michigan  in  1903, 
and  Minnesota  and  Nebraska  in  1905.  By  1911 
thirteen  states  had  made  provision  for  such  training 
classes,  and  624  such  classes  had  been  established  in  the 
high  schools  of  these  states.  The  idea  soon  spread  to 
a  number  of  additional  states,  and  by  1917,  such  train- 
ing courses  had  been  organized  in  1493  high  schools,  in 


A  NEW  TEACHER  291 

21  states,  with  27,111  students  enrolled  and  16,626 
graduates  in  1917.  After  the  entry  of  the  United  States 
into  the  World  War,  there  was  a  drop  in  attendance  at 
these  classes,  as  was  the  case  also  with  the  regular  nor- 
mal schools,  but  by  1920  there  were  indications  that 
the  attendance  would  soon  be  back  to  the  former  level. 
In  1889,  Wisconsin  provided  for  the  establishment 
of  county  training  schools,  in  counties  not  containing 
a  state  normal  school,  and  twenty-eight  of  these  had 
been  organized  by  1917.  All  of  these  schools  are  in- 
tended specifically  for  the  training  of  teachers  for  the 
rural  schools  of  the  county;  the  course  is  usually  one 
year  long;  and  nearly  all  of  the  states  grant  to  the 
graduates  of  such  a  course  a  short-term  teacher's  cer- 
tificate, usually  valid  only  for  teaching  in  the  rural 
schools  of  the  county. 

The  prime  object  in  the  establishment  of  such  train- 
ing classes  has  been  to  secure  some  professional  prepa- 
ration for  the  teachers  in  the  rural  schools  of  the  state. 
In  this,  these  classes  have  been  very  successful.  In 
New  York,  approximately  seven  thousand  such  grad- 
uates are  now  teaching  in  the  rural  schools.  In  Ne- 
braska, probably  three  thousand  teachers  so  trained  are 
now  engaged  in  teaching.  The  course  is  short,  being 
but  one  year  in  duration  in  most  of  the  schools,  and  no- 
where over  two  years  in  length.  In  some  of  the  states, 
even  elementary-school  graduates  are  admitted  to  the 
course,  though  the  usual  plan  is  to  oflFer  such  work  only 
m  the  third  and  fourth  years  of  the  high-school  course, 


292  RURAL   LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

and  in  place  of  the  other  instruction.  A  one-year 
course,  offered  as  a  substitute  for  the  last  year  of  the 
regular  course,  is  perhaps  the  most  common  plan. 

Nature  of  the  instruction  offered.  As  might  natu- 
rally happen  in  the  beginning  of  such  a  movement,  the 
instruction  offered  in  most  cases  followed  too  closely  the 
old  traditional  lines,  and  prepared  primarily  for  teach- 
ing a  traditional  old-type  rural  school.  The  studies  at 
first  were  chiefly  reviews  of  the  so-called  common- 
school  branches,  with  a  little  psychology,  history  of 
education,  school  law,  and  school  management,  with 
a  little  observation  and  practice  on  the  younger  chil- 
dren in  the  grades  beneath  thrown  in  for  good  measure. 
Such  training  courses  were  very  common  a  decade  ago, 
and  are  still  to  be  found  in  a  few  of  our  states. 

Why  such  courses  are  inadequate.  Such  prepara- 
tion, while  perhaps  good  enough  of  its  kind,  is  not  the 
kind  that  is  needed  to  meet  the  peculiar  needs  of  rural 
education  of  to-day.  It  prepares  primarily  for  the  old 
type  of  rural  school,  and  not  for  the  new  one  which  is 
needed. 

It  may,  of  course,  be  said  that  the  students  in  these 
classes  do  not  know  these  old  common-school  branches. 
This  is  probably  true,  but  if  they  are  not  capable, 
after  a  little  help  and  direction,  of  getting  up  these 
subjects  themselves,  and  fast  enough  to  keep  ahead 
of  a  class,  they  are  not  likely  to  prove  of  much  value 
as  teachers.  They  knew  these  subjects  once  and 
have  forgotten  them,  and  a  year  after  this  second  drill. 


A   NEW  TEACHER  293 

if  they  do  not  at  once  teach  the  subjects,  they  will  have 
forgotten  them  again.  There  are  too  many  subjects 
to  be  taught,  of  so  much  more  importance,  and  sub- 
jects which  cannot  be  worked  up  from  books  alone,  that 
only  a  minimum  of  time  ought  to  be  put  on  these  old 
subjects.  Such  training  courses  are,  of  course,  better 
than  no  training  at  all,  but  they  are  not  what  should 
be  given  to  enable  young  people  to  render  the  kind  of 
rural  service  demanded  by  the  conditions  of  twentieth- 
century  farm  life. 

More  recent  development.  Within  the  past  five 
years,  under  the  impulse  of  a  new  interest  in  agricul- 
ture and  rural-life  problems,  there  has  been  manifest  a 
somewhat  general  tendency  to  depart  from  such  old- 
types  courses  and  to  introduce  work  more  likely  to 
prove  profitable  to  prospective  rural  workers.  One  of 
the  best  of  these  newer  courses  is  that  outlined  for 
the  high-school  training-classes  of  Minnesota.  This 
divides  part  of  the  work  into  half-year  subjects,  and 
part  into  one-third  year  subjects,  and  is  as  follows: 

TWO-TERM   SUBJECTS 
1st  semester  (18  weeks)  2nd  semester  (18  weeks) 

Observation  and  Teaching.  Teaching. 

Geography.  Language  Methods  and  Grammar. 

Arithmetic.  History   (12   w),   Minnesota   his- 

tory (3w.).  Civics  (3  w.). 
Reading  (|  period).  Reading  (?  period). 

General  Exercises  (20min.).  General  Exercises  (20  min.). 


294  RURAL  LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

THREE-TERM    SUBJECTS 
First  term  {12  weeks)  Second  (12  w.)  Third  {12  w.) 

Pedagogy.  Rural  School  Mgmt.       Country  Life  (|). 

Nature  Study  (f).        Hygiene  (5).  Nature  Study  (1). 

Industrial  Arts.  Industrial  Arts.  Industrial  Arts. 

Primary  Hand-  Hot  Lunch  (J).  Drawing  (5). 

work  (i).  Primary  Hand-  Intermediate 

work  {{).  Hand-work  (5). 

[Periods  40  minutes  long;  fractional  periods  indicated.  Two  to  three 
hours  of  outside  preparation  expected  daily.] 

Probable  future  development.  These  high-school 
training  courses  are  now  rendering  a  useful  service  in 
providing  some  training  for  the  teachers  of  our  rural 
schools.  The  probabilities  are,  though,  that  these 
high-school  training  classes  supply  a  temporary  rather 
than  a  permanent  need,  and  that  the  line  of  evolution 
in  the  future  will  involve  both  the  development  of 
combined  county  normal-training  and  agricultural  high 
schools,  and  the  turning  of  our  state  normal  school 
back  to  what  ought  to  be,  in  part  at  least,  one  of  their 
main  functions.  The  development  of  agricultural  and 
normal-training  high  schools,  somewhat  after  the  Wis- 
consin type,  offering  four-year  courses  intended  to 
prepare  young  people  directly  for  rural  life  and  rural 
service,  ought  to  become  a  prominent  feature  of  a 
future  county  unit  of  educational  organization.  Under 
a  county  plan  for  consolidated  schools,  such  as  is  out- 
lined in  chapter  x,  and  with  the  county  unit  for  educa- 
tional organization  and  administration,  as  is  outlined 
in  chapter  xiii,  the  organization  of  such  agricultural 
and  normal-training  high    schools  would   become  a 


A   NEW  TEACHER  295 

marked  feature  of  the  school  system  of  every  agri- 
cultural county  of  any  size  in  area  and  population. 
Agriculture  would,  of  course,  be  prominent  in  such 
schools,  as  would  studies  intended  to  prepare  for  other 
rural-life  needs.  Preparation  for  rural-school  teach- 
ing would,  in  such  schools,  be  closely  correlated  with 
preparation  for  rural  living,  and  the  teachers'  training 
course  would  be  so  shaped  as  to  involve  the  whole  four 
years  of  training,  with  specialization  during  the  fourth 
year,  or  perhaps  the  third  and  fourth  years.  No  ade- 
quate preparation  for  rural  teaching  of  the  right  kind 
can  be  given  in  one  year.  The  whole  teachers'  training, 
with  emphasis  on  applied  science,  music,  drawing,  man- 
ual and  domestic  work  and  English,  should  lead  up  to 
the  last  professional  year  as  its  culmination. 

A  suggested  one-year  course.  Assuming,  however,' 
that  for  the  present  but  one  year  can  be  devoted  to 
such  preparation,  and  that  the  course  is  to  be  open  to 
students  of  all  kinds  of  previous  training,  of  what 
ought  the  training  to  consist?  The  following  is  one 
suggestion  for  such  a  course:  — 

SUGGESTED  ONE-YEAR  COURSE  FOR  RURAL  TEACHERS 

(To  be  divided  into  four  terms,  of  ten  weeks  each) 

First  term  Second  term 

1.  Language  work.  1.  Reading  and  literature. 

2.  Geography.  2.  Arithmetic. 

3.  Agriculture.  8.  Nature  study. 

4.  Arts  group.  (See  below.)  4.  Arts  group.   (See  below.) 

5.  Rural  problems.  5.  Rural  problems  (continued). 

6.  Educational  psychology.  6.  Princples  of  teaching. 


296  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

Third  term  Fourth  term 

1.  History  and  civics.  1.  Library  work. 

2.  Physiology.  2.  Hygiene  and  sanitation. 

3.  Nature  study  (continued).  3.  Agriculture  (resumed). 

4.  Arts  group.   (See  below.)  4.  Arts  group.    (See  below.) 

5.  School  manual,  law,  etc.*  5.  Observation  and  practice.* 

6.  School  management.  6.  Education  and  the  state. 

Arts  group 

Drawing;  music;  and  games,  organized  play  and  gymnastics;  — 
each  one  lesson  a  week  throughout  the  year.  Manual  training,  two 
lessons  each  week,  first  half-year.  Domestic  science,  two  lessons  each 
week,  second  half-year. 

EXPLANATORY 

Common-school  subjects.  In  the  work  in  the  common- 
school  subjects  (language  work,  geography,  reading  and  Ht- 
erature,  arithmetic,  history,  and  civics),  the  purpose  is  not  so 
much  to  "review"  and  relearn  these  subjects,  as  to  study 
plans  for  teaching  them;  what  to  emphasize  and  what  to 
omit;  and  plans  for  correlating  the  work  with  other  school 
instruction  and  with  the  community  life.  The  possibilities  of 
farm  arithmetic,  farm  language  work  and  essays,  and  home 
geography  would  naturally  be  emphasized.  In  reading  and 
literature  some  drill  on  the  use  of  the  voice  should  be  included. 

Physiology  and  hygiene.  After  a  very  short  review  of  phy- 
siology' proper,  the  work  should  go  into  personal  and  commu- 
nity hygiene,  and  should  include  such  topics  as  bacteria,  home 
and  yard  sanitation,  schoolhouse  sanitation,  common  diseases, 
proper  care  of  the  sick,  first  aid  to  the  injured,  detection  of 
common  defects  in  school  children,  and  the  personal  health  of 
the  teacher. 

Agriculture  and  nature  study.  A  year  devoted  to  practical 
work  in  agriculture  and  science.  Agriculture  is  studied  in  the 
fall  and  spring,  and  scientific  experiments,  particularly  in 
chemistry  and  physics,  are  carried  on  during  the  winter. 
School  gardening  and  farm  observation  should  be  an  important 

*  The  order  for  these  two  subjects  to  be  reversed,  for  one  half  of 
the  pupils. 


A  NEW  TEACHER  297 

part  of  the  work.  The  importance  of  a  sunny  conservatory 
corner  in  the  schoolroom  for  growing  plants,  such  as  is  shown 
in  Fig.  52,  p.  214,  or  of  the  workrooms  shown  in  Figs.  50,  53 
and  54,  will  now  be  apparent.  The  work  should  be  as  prac- 
tical as  is  possible,  and  students  should  be  shown  how  to 
obtain  and  use  agricultural  bulletins,  and  how  to  organize 
and  conduct  boys'  and  girls'  clubs. 

Library  work.  A  ten-weeks'  course,  on  the  selection,  care,  and 
use  of  books,  intended  to  put  teachers  into  sympathetic  touch 
with  the  traveling  and  rural-library  movement,  and  to  train 
them  in  the  care  of  the  school  library.  What  type  of  books  to 
buy  for  the  school  library;  what  kind  of  literature  children 
ought  to  read;  what  types  of  supplemental  books  to  order,  and 
how  to  use  them;  and  also  an  acquaintance  with  a  number  of 
the  most  useful  books  for  a  rural  teacher,  as  helps  and  for 
stimulating  fm-ther  professional  growth,  should  be  included  in 
this  course. 

Rural  problems.  A  course  dealing  primarily  with  the  rural- 
life  problem,  what  can  be  done  to  solve  it,  and  how  to  do  it. 
The  course  might  be  called  one  in  rural  sociology,  if  that  is  a 
more  expressive  term.  It  should  set  forth  the  rural-life  prob- 
lem as  it  has  developed  and  now  is,  showing  the  country 
teacher's  relation  to  it;  should  show  the  place  of  the  church, 
the  library,  the  school,  the  Grange,  the  Y.M.C.A.,  etc.,  in  its 
solution;  should  point  out  the  need  of  revitalizing  rural  educa- 
tion and  of  redirecting  the  rural  school;  should  reveal  to  the 
new  teacher  the  economic  and  social  needs;  should  empha- 
size the  importance  of  slowly  educating  rural  communities  to 
see  the  need  for  improving  their  home  life,  the  community  life, 
and  the  school,  and  the  many  advantages  of  the  consolidated 
school  for  such  purposes;  and  finally  the  need  and  place  for 
leadership  on  the  part  of  the  country  teacher,  and  the  ways  in 
which  she  may  exercise  it. 

Arts  group.  The  instruction  here  should  be  of  a  very  prac- 
tical type,  as  what  to  teach  in  drawing  and  music  in  the  rural 
school;  how  to  organize  games  and  sports,  what  kind  of 
equipment  to  get,  and  how  to  get  it;  what  kind  of  gymnas- 
tics to  teach;  how  to  organize  local  and  inter-community 
contests;  and  what  to  do  in  handwork,  manual  training,  and 
the  home  arts  in  the  rural  school. 


298  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  manual  training  should  be  adapted  to  rural  needs,  and 
should  include  instruction  in  how  to  teach  the  use  and  care  of 
tools  for  work  in  wood,  leather,  and  perhaps  concrete,  with 
instruction  as  to  what  to  do  in  these  various  lines.  In  domestic 
science,  the  work  should  include  the  essentials  of  cooking  and 
sewing,  the  chemistry  of  the  kitchen,  the  use  of  the  sewing- 
machine,  kitchen  appliances,  table  service,  etc.  It  will  be  val- 
uable for  teachers  to  know  manual  and  domestic  work,  even 
though  the  school  in  which  they  teach  does  not  as  yet  offer  any 
facilities  for  instruction  in  such  subjects. 

Professional  work.  The  first  ten  weeks  should  be  given  to  a 
very  simple  and  very  concrete  study  of  the  essentials  of  edu- 
cational psychology;  the  second  ten  weeks  to  a  study  of  the 
fundamental  principles  underlying  the  organization  and  in- 
struction of  a  rural  school;  the  third  ten  weeks  to  school  man- 
agement, with  special  reference  to  rural-school  needs;  and 
the  last  ten  weeks  to  a  study  intended  to  enlarge  the  teacher's 
horizon  and  give  inspiration  for  service,  and  dealing  with  the 
place  and  purpose  of  public  education  in  the  state  and  the 
why  of  public  education.  During  the  third  term  also  the 
school  manual,  or  course  of  study,  for  the  state  or  county  is 
read  through  and  explained;  the  small  amount  of  school  law  a 
rural  teacher  needs  to  know  is  stated ;  and  the  use  of  the  school 
code  shown.  In  the  last  ten  weeks  there  is  both  observation 
and  practice  in  teaching,  and  training  in  how  to  make  reports 
and  keep  a  school  register  is  given.  To  prevent  a  congestion  in 
the  practice  work,  the  order  of  giving  the  practice  teaching 
and  the  school  manual  and  law  work  should  be  reversed,  for 
one  half  of  the  pupils. 

What  such  a  course  prepares  for.  With  some  such 
course  of  training  as  the  above,  the  new  rural  teacher  is 
prepared  to  go  out  and  get  results  and  to  improve 
social  and  educational  conditions.  The  emphasis,  it 
will  be  noticed,  is  placed  upon  knowing  something  as 
to  needs,  means,  and  ends,  rather  than  upon  mere 
practice  in  teaching  the  traditional  old-type  common- 


A  NEW  TEACHER  299 

school  subjects.  The  course  is  intended  to  develop  a 
useful,  thinking  teacher,  capable  of  increasingly  useful 
service,  rather  than  a  mere  teaching  apprentice  along 
the  old  traditional  lines. 

Such  a  teacher  has  been  shown  how  to  improve  the 
schoolhouse  and  grounds ;  how  to  get  school  gardening 
and  agriculture  started;  how  to  get  a  bench  and  some 
tools  into  the  schoolhouse,  and  what  to  do  with  them; 
how  to  start  sewing  with  the  girls,  and  how  to  awaken 
an  interest  in  cooking  and  home  work;  and  how  to 
enrich  the  instruction  in  the  old  subjects,  and  relate 
them  to  community  life.  Such  a  teacher,  also,  will  see 
the  advantages  of  getting  acquainted  with  the  people 
of  the  community,  and  will  discover  ways  of  socializing 
and  improving  the  rural  life.  She  will  understand  both 
the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  school  in  which  she 
works,  and,  instead  of  talking  vaguely  about  the  edu- 
cational rights  of  the  country  child,  will  set  to  work  to 
improve  the  existing  school  and  schoolhouse.  She  will 
also  know  the  greater  advantages  of  the  consolidated 
school,  and  perhaps  do  something  to  awaken  a  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  providing  such. 

Everything  cannot  be  done  at  once,  or  in  a  year, 
for  rural  communities  are  proverbially  slow  to  move. 
They  follow  those  only  whom  they  know  and  trust, 
and  real  rural  service  can  never  be  rendered  by  the 
city  teacher  who  goes  to  the  country  "  to  get  experi- 
ence," takes  but  little  interest  in  the  community,  and 
never  gets  into  sympathetic  touch  with  rural  life  and 


300  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

rural  needs.  The  story  of  the  two  churches,  given  in 
chapter  vi,  each  of  which  is  a  story  of  ten  years  of 
effort,  and  where  it  took  time  in  each  case  to  see  that 
any  progress  was  being  made,  are  good  illustrations  of 
rural-community  service  and  good  illustrations  for  the 
rural  teacher  to  keep  in  mind. 

The  rural  high-school  teacher.  When  we  pass  from 
the  elementary-school  field  to  the  high  school,  some- 
thing of  the  same  need  for  a  new  type  of  a  rural  and 
village  high-school  teacher  is  evident.  Of  teachers  of 
Latin,  English,  history,  and  mathematics  of  the  pre- 
vailing type,  there  is  a  great  surplus,  while  of  teachers 
of  the  newer  subjects  and  with  the  newer  attitude  in 
the  old  subjects,  there  is  a  shortage.  This  is  only 
natural  in  a  time  of  changing  educational  emphasis, 
and,  in  a  country  where  the  emphasis  has  been  shifted 
so  recently  and  so  quickly  as  in  our  own,  the  lack  of 
adjustment  to  new  conditions,  in  the  training  of  high- 
school  teachers,  is  only  natural.  Colleges  and  univer- 
sities, like  normal  schools  and  training  classes,  are  too 
often  continuing  to  give  a  preparation  better  suited  to 
the  past  than  to  the  future. 

The  rural  and  village  high  schools,  generally  speak- 
ing, need  redirection  almost  as  much  as  do  the  ele- 
mentary schools.  Agriculture,  manual  work,  and  the 
home-keeping  arts  ought  to  be  important  elements  in 
the  training  given  in  such  schools,  and  the  school  needs 
good  laboratory  and  land  and  barn  equipment  for  its 
work.  The  usual  rural  or  village  high  school  is  an  old- 


A   NEW   TEACHER  301 

time  city-type  institution,  copied  by  the  village  or 
rural  district  because  it  represents  the  traditional 
course  of  instruction  and  is  cheap  and  easy  to  main- 
tain. If  a  teacher  of  the  newer  subjects  is  wanted,  or 
one  who  can  redirect  the  teaching  of  the  old  subjects, 
such  teachers  are  hard  to  obtain,  even  though  the 
salaries  now  offered  for  such  teachers  are  comparable 
with  the  profits  obtained  from  farming  or  from  prac- 
tical work.  The  institutions  engaged  in  the  training  of 
high-school  teachers,  alike  with  the  institutions  en- 
gaged in  the  training  of  elementary  teachers,  need  to 
set  to  work  seriously  to  prepare  teachers  who  can  go  to 
our  rural  and  village  high  schools  and  begin  the  redi- 
rection of  the  school  and  the  improvement  of  rural  and 
village  life. 

The  call  for  rural  leadership.  If  our  rural  teachers 
are  really  to  serve,  if  our  rural  schools  are  to  be  redi- 
rected and  made  vital,  and  if  the  school  is  to  assume 
the  position  almost  everywhere  open  to  it  and  become 
the  social  center  for  the  community  life,  a  new  type  of 
leadership  must  be  developed  in  our  rural  teachers. 
As  Dean  Bailey  puts  it,  "A  new  race  of  country 
teachers  needs  to  arise."  The  course  of  training  just 
outlined  has  been  worked  out  with  this  thought  in 
mind.  The  need  for  rural  leadership  is  great,  and  no 
one  in  the  whole  rural  community  has  one  half  the 
opportunity  for  leadership  and  service  that  belongs, 
by  the  nature  of  the  case,  to  the  country  teacher.  The 
isolation  and  petty  jealousies  of  rural  communities  are 


302  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

such  that  hardly  any  one  is  willing  to  try  to  start  a 
new  movement,  and  especially  is  this  the  case  if  it  is 
a  movement  for  the  improvement  of  existing  condi- 
tions. The  heavy  burden  of  denominationalism  inter- 
feres with  the  effectiveness  of  the  rural  minister,  the 
Grange  leaders  belong  to  an  organization  which  does 
not  include  all  citizens,  while  the  rural  social  worker  at 
best  occupies  but  a  limited  field.  Everywhere  we  find 
the  public-school  teacher,  and  the  fact  that  she  is  a 
public  oflBcial,  supported  by  all  and  at  the  service  of  all, 
gives  her  an  initial  advantage  such  as  no  other  com- 
munity agent  does  or  can  enjoy.  The  nearest  approach 
would  be  the  public  librarian,  but  the  opportunities  of 
even  such  an  officer  are  small  compared  with  those  of  a 
teacher. 

Possibilities  for  usefulness.  As  an  outside  person, 
with  a  better  perspective  than  that  of  the  community 
residents,  and  as  a  teacher  of  the  children  of  all,  the 
teacher,  if  possessed  of  proper  training  and  vision,  has 
the  opportunity  gradually  to  enlarge  her  duties  so  as 
to  include  the  social  and  the  educational  leadership  of 
the  whole  community.  If  she  has  studied  rural  social, 
economic,  and  educational  problems  and  needs;  if  she 
realizes  the  place  and  the  importance  of  the  home, 
the  school,  the  church,  the  library,  the  Grange,  the 
Y.M.C.A.,  and  the  Y.W.C.A.,  as  social  institutions;  if 
she  knows  the  importance  of  each  of  these  in  effecting 
general  progress;  —  then  it  is  possible  for  such  a  teacher 
to  evolve  into  one  of  the  most  useful  of  rural  social 


A   NEW   TEACHER  SOS 

workers.  She  must,  however,  have  the  vision  to  form 
a  clear  conception  as  to  needed  community  advance- 
ment; have  the  practical  judgment  to  know  what  to 
attempt,  and  what  to  postpone  or  to  let  alone;  be 
patient  enough  not  to  expect  to  transform  everything 
in  a  day  or  a  year;  and  be  possessed  of  that  quality  of 
leadership  which  stimulates  others  into  action,  and 
develops  initiative  and  self-reliance  in  them,  instead  of 
trying  to  run  everything  personally  and  to  magnify  her 
own  importance  in  the  community.  To  give,  in  the 
training  school,  so  far  as  it  can  be  done,  training  for 
such  rural  leadership,  is  much  more  important  than 
improving  the  teacher's  knowledge  of  the  subject- 
matter  of  arithmetic  and  grammar,  or  of  filling  her  full 
of  methods  and  devices  for  the  teaching  of  such 
subjects. 

Personal  attitude;  steps  in  the  process.  In  addition 
to  such  training  the  teacher  needs  to  be  in  sympathy 
with  life  in  the  open  country.  No  town-bred  and  town- 
sick  teacher  can  ever  render  the  kind  of  service  de- 
sired. She  must  really  love  the  country,  and  feel  that 
her  call  for  service  lies  there.  The  possibilities  and 
beauties  of  life  in  the  open  country  must  make  a  strong 
appeal  to  her.  Accepting  conditions  as  she  finds  them, 
she  then  begins  to  contribute  her  part  to  that  gradual 
transformation  and  reconstruction  of  rural  life  which 
is  necessary  to  adjust  it  to  modern  demands.  From 
small  beginnings  large  results  will  ultimately  come. 
The  first  step  is  to  make  as  good  a  school  as  is  possible, 


304  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

and  to  make  it  permeate  the  life  of  the  community. 
Another  early  progressive  step  is  the  improvement  of 
the  building  and  the  grounds.  From  the  school  as  a 
center,  the  teacher  must  gradually  reach  outward  into 
the  community  life.  School  exhibitions,  boys'  and 
girls'  clubs,  contests  of  various  kinds,  community 
gatherings,  parents'  associations,  joint  institutes  of  the 
young  people  and  the  farmers,  and  cooperative  com- 
munity undertakings  for  the  improvement  of  the 
school  or  the  community  life,  will  come  along  natu- 
rally as  the  school  develops  from  a  little  isolated  insti- 
tution for  the  drilling-in  of  definite  amounts  of  old 
traditional  knowledge,  into  a  larger  community  insti- 
tution devoted  to  the  advancement  of  the  community 
welfare. 

QUESTIONS   FOR   DISCUSSION 

1.  What  are  average  yearly  wages  for  rural  teachers  in  your  state? 
In  your  county,  or  township? 

2.  What  percentage  of  the  teachers  are  new  to  the  work  each  year? 
Why  is  this  so? 

3.  Compare  the  yearly  wages  of  teachers  in  consolidated  schools 
with  those  in  district  schools. 

4.  Why  is  it  impossible,  in  most  of  our  states,  to  equalize  educational 
opportunities  between  city  boy  and  country  boy  under  present 
conditions? 

6.  Why  are  good  educational  preparation  and  professional  insight 
of  particular  importance  for  teachers  in  our  rural  schools? 

6.  Why  is  the  county  teachers'  examination  a  poor  test  for  such 
preparation? 

7.  What  percentage  of  the  teachers  in  your  state  or  county  have 
had  professional  preparation  for  the  work  of  teaching?  What 
number  do  you  suppose  have  a  modern  point  of  view  in  their 
work? 

8.  Do  you  have  high-school  training  classes  in  your  state? 


5      «4 


S   .2 


A  NEW  TEACHER  SOiT 

9.  Are  the  courses  of  instruction  offered  in  such  "adequate," 
judged  by  the  standards  set  up  on  pages  293-94? 

10.  Do  you  have  courses  comparable  to  the  one  outlined  on  pages 
295-96?  Do  you  think  such  would  be  an  improvement  on  what 
the  teacher  now  gets? 

11.  Compare  the  Minnesota  course  and  the  course  proposed  on 
pages  295-96. 

12.  How  can  we  "redirect"  the  high  school  along  the  lines  sug- 
gested? 

13.  What  lines  of  attack  in  improving  educational  conditions  in 
rural  districts  are  most  likely  to  be  successful? 

14.  Show  how  the  best  type  of  rural  high  school  could  be  developed 
in  connection  with  the  type  of  consolidated  school  described 
in  chapter  x. 

15.  In  what  ways  does  the  country-school  teacher  have  particular 
advantages  for  rural  leadership? 

16.  Does  the  district  system  of  school  organization  impose  unneces- 
sary obstacles  to  rural  service?  How?  What? 

17.  Show  how  the  rural  teacher's  opportunity  for  real  rural  service 
would  be  enlarged  in  the  consolidated  school  under  a  county- 
unit  form  of  school  administration. 

18.  Read  carefully  the  last  five  pages  of  this  chapter,  and  then  out- 
line a  feasible  plan  for  community  improvement,  and  with  the 
ultimate  end  in  view  of  making  your  school  a  community  center, 

,  large  or  small. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A  NEW  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION 

Larger  rural  leadership.  When  we  pass  from  a  con- 
sideration of  the  teaching  to  that  of  the  supervision  of 
instruction  in  our  rural  and  village  schools,  the  need 
for  fundamental  supervisory  changes,  if  we  are  to 
accomplish  large  results,  will  be  no  less  apparent. 
Perhaps  no  phase  of  the  rural-school  problem  is  more 
urgently  in  need  of  a  radical  reconstruction  than  is 
that  phase  that  has  to  do  with  the  supervision  of  the 
instruction  in  our  rural  and  village  schools.  It  is  very 
desirable  to  stimulate  the  local  leadership  of  teachers, 
as  emphasized  in  the  last  chapter,  but  even  more  im- 
portant is  the  inspiration  and  leadership  which  comes 
from  some  one  of  larger  authority  and  oversight. 
Unless  there  is  an  effective  leader  of  leaders  to  stimu- 
late and  to  direct,  rural  educational  progress  is  almost 
certain  to  prove  sporadic  and  ineffective.  In  an  army 
good  drill  sergeants  and  lieutenants  are,  of  course, 
necessary,  but  an  army  would  prove  ineffective  in 
action  if  there  were  no  captains  for  the  companies  or 
colonels  for  the  regiments.  It  is  the  lack  of  captains 
and  colonels  of  larger  grasp  and  insight  that  is  to-day 
the  greatest  single  weakness  of  our  rural  and  village 
educational  army.   When  matched  ugainst  the  city 


A  NEW.  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION         307 

educational  army,  with  its  many  captains  and  colo- 
nels, and  under  generals  of  large  insight  and  effective 
I>ersonal  force,  the  city  army  easily  outgenerals  its 
opponent.  Still  more,  because  of  its  superior  organ- 
ization and  superior  generalship,  its  more  attractive 
service,  and  the  better  pay  and  greater  permanency  of 
its  educational  positions,  the  city  educational  army  is 
continually  drawing  off  from  the  other  not  only  its 
best  officers,  but  its  best  privates  as  well.  The  rural 
and  village  army  can  make  but  few  reprisals,  and  hence 
is  continually  compelled  to  fill  its  ranks  with  raw 
recruits.  The  reason  for  this  condition  is  partly  finan- 
cial, due  in  part  to  poor  educational  organization,  as 
we  have  previously  pointed  out  in  chapter  viii,  but 
partly  due  to  the  lack  of  good  generalship  in  the  rural 
and  village  army. 

Dropping  the  figure  of  speech,  the  lack  of  effective 
personal  and  professional  supervision  for  our  rural  and 
town  schools  is  to-day  one  of  the  most  serious  handi- 
caps under  which  they  suffer.  Lacking  leadership 
which  knows  what  ought  to  be  done  and  how  to  do  it, 
the  rural  and  village  schools  too  often  merely  drift 
along.  Only  in  some  of  the  New  England  States,  in 
Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Utah,  and  in  most  of  the 
Southern  States,  is  anything  approaching  effective 
supervisory  organization  as  yet  to  be  found.     . 

The  county  unit  in  evolution.  Everywhere  outside 
of  New  England,  and  excepting  only  New  York,  Vir- 
ginia, and  Nevada,  the  county  exists  as  a  unit  of  school 


308  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

organization  and  administration,  though  the  county 
as  a  unit  is  everywhere  more  or  less  further  subdivided 
into  townships,  or  school  districts,  or  both.  The 
county  unit,  also,  is  found  in  all  stages  of  evolution 
from  the  strong-district  and  weak-county  combination, 
such  as  exists  in  Missouri,  up  to  the  county  as  the 
single  unit  of  educational  organization  and  administra- 
tion, analogous  to  a  city-school  organization,  as  exists  in 
Maryland.  Between  these  two  extremes  we  find  states 
representing  all  stages  in  the  evolutionary  process, 
though  the  direction  of  the  evolution  seems  somewhat 
clear.  The  county,  outside  of  New  England,  and  pos- 
sibly one  or  two  other  states,  offers  such  a  natural 
and  ready-made  unit  for  educational  organization  and 
administration,  its  use  would  offer  so  many  financial 
and  educational  advantages,  and  the  general  tendency 
toward  making  the  county  the  unit,  generally  speak- 
ing, seems  so  unmistakable,  that  we  may,  perhaps  in 
the  near  future,  look  forward  to  seeing  a  system  of 
school  organization,  administration,  and  supervision 
evolved  which  shall  be  as  effective  and  efficient  for 
rural  and  village  schools  as  our  forms  of  city  educa- 
tional organization  and  administration  are  for  city 
schools.  In  the  mean  time,  we  need  an  improvement  in 
conditions  to  secure  better  results. 

The  evolution  of  the  school  superintendency.  As 
education  began  to  evolve  from  a  little,  local,  and 
voluntary  community  interest  into  a  large,  general, 
and  compulsory  state  interest,  and  as  the  states  began 


A   NEW  TYPE   OF   SUPERVISION  309 

to  be  possessed  of  school  funds  of  some  actual  or  poten- 
tial size,  our  people  began  to  create  state  and  county 
educational  officials  to  look  after  the  larger  interests  of 
the  state,  as  opposed  to  the  smaller  interests  of  the 
communities.  State  and  county  superintendents  of 
schools  were  eventually  created  for  nearly  all  of  the 
states,  and  these  officials  were  given  power  to  appor- 
tion the  income  from  the  state  school  funds  and  the 
proceeds  of  taxation,  and  to  compel,  in  return,  the 
submission  of  certain  statistical  information  which  the 
state  thought  it  worth  while  to  collect.  The  state  edu- 
cational officer  looked  after  the  financial  and  statistical 
matters  for  the  state  as  a  whole,  and  the  county  edu- 
cational officers  acted,  in  large  part,  as  his  representa- 
tives, in  the  same  capacity,  in  the  different  counties. 
Almost  the  only  educational  function  given  to  such 
officials  at  first  was  that  of  visiting  and  stimulating 
an  interest  in  the  schools.  As  the  office  called  for 
no  special  qualities,  and  could  be  filled  from  among 
the  electorate  more  easily  than  could  the  position  of 
county  treasurer  or  auditor,  there  was  at  first  no 
reason  why  election  from  and  by  the  electorate,  and 
for  short  terms,  would  not  secure  as  satisfactory 
school  officers  as  any  other  method. 

New  conception  of  the  office.  Since  those  early  days 
the  whole  face  of  the  educational  problem  has  changed, 
and  the  nature  of  the  superintendent's  duties  and 
powers  has  changed  as  well.  The  clerical  and  financial 
functions  remain,  but  greatly  enlarged,  and,  in  addi- 


810  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

tion,  powers  and  functions  formerly  resting  with  the 
local  district  authorities  on  the  one  hand,  and  new 
educational  functions  since  assumed  by  the  state  on 
the  other,  have  been  intrusted  to  this  county  educa- 
tional official.  Many  of  these  new  powers  and  duties, 
such  as  the  certification  of  teachers,  the  outlining  of 
the  course  of  study,  the  selection  of  school  library 
and  school  textbooks,  the  construction  and  sanitation 
of  school  buildings,  the  examination  and  grading  of  the 
schools,  and  the  supervision  of  the  work  of  the  teacher, 
call  for  professional  preparation  of  a  rather  high  order 
if  efficient  service  is  to  be  expected. 

As  a  result,  within  the  past  decade  or  two,  entirely 
new  conceptions  of  the  office  have  been  evolving,  and 
entirely  new  educational  demands  have  been  pushed 
to  the  front.  The  idea  that  any  citizen  or  teacher  could 
fill  the  office  has  been  passing,  and  states  have  begun 
to  demand  an  examination  and  a  special  certificate  as  a 
prerequisite  of  holding  the  office.  Still  more  recently 
our  studies  of  the  rural-life  and  the  rural-educational 
problems  have  alike  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
educational  system  of  a  county  should  be  placed  under 
as  efficient  educational  leadership  as  is  that  of  a  city. 

If  the  education  of  the  country  boy  and  girl  is  as 
important  as  the  education  of  the  city  boy  and  girl, 
and  if  the  country  boy  and  girl  are  ever  to  secure 
approximately  equal  advantages,  then  country  people 
must  see  to  it  that  their  schools  are  possessed  of  as 
good  educational  organization  and  leadership,  for  their 


A  NEW  TYPE   OF  SUPERVISION  311 

needs,  as  are  the  schools  of  the  cities.  To  secure  such 
results  for  country  boys  and  girls  there  must  be  pro- 
vided a  better  system  of  organization  and  maintenance 
than  is  now  found  in  most  of  our  states  (chapter  vni) ; 
a  new  type  of  teaching  equipment  must  be  provided 
(chapter  ix) ;  a  reorganization  and  consolidation  of 
the  schools,  according  to  some  rational  county  plan, 
should  be  carried  out  (chapter  x);  a  new  course  of 
instruction,  ministering  to  the  community  needs, 
should  be  introduced  (chapter  xi);  a  new  type  of 
teacher,  interested  in  the  community  welfare,  should 
be  trained  and  secured  (chapter  xii) ;  and  a  new  form 
of  rural-school  supervision,  which  shall  be  as  good 
and  as  effective  for  rural  and  village  schools  as  city- 
school  supervision  is  to-day  for  city  schools,  should  be 
created  and  maintained. 

Our  present  supervision.  Of  real  educational  super- 
vision for  our  rural  schools,  except  in  a  few  favored 
states,  we  have  to-day  almost  none.  The  town  super- 
vision required  uniformly  for  all  schools  in  Massa- 
chusetts, under  which  rural  and  town  schools  are  alike 
supervised  by  the  town-school  superintendent,  is 
perhaps  as  effective  as  any  system  of  supervision  we 
have.  The  toT\Tiship  system  as  inaugurated  here  and 
there  in  Ohio,  if  properly  established,  often  gives  ex- 
cellent results.  Depending,  as  it  does,  on  voluntary 
establishment,  and  not  being  subject  to  other  than 
nominal  state  or  county  oversight,  it  is  more  often 
inefifective  than  effective,  and  still  more  often  not 


£12 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


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FiS.71.    HOW  THE  CHIEF  COUNTY  (OR  TOWN)  SCHOOL  OFFICERi 
IS  SECURED  IN  OUR  AMERICAN  STATES 

The  six  New  England  States  use  the  town  (township)  system,  there  being  no 
County  School  Officers  in  these  States.  There  the  town  superintendents  are  all 
appointed  just  as  high  school  principals  are  in  California.  Nevada  abolished  the 
county  educational  office  and  substituted  Deputy  State  Superintendents  of  Schools 
as  state  inspectors  in  their  place,  and  Delaware  in  1921  substituted  a  state  for  the 
county  unit. 


established  at  all.  A  number  of  our  states  have  for 
years  had  permissive  laws,  under  which  deputy  county 
superintendents  might  be  employed,  but  these  laws 
have  seldom  produced  supervision  for  the  reason  that 
the  County  Commissioners,  holding  the  purse  strings, 
have  usually  refused  to  appropriate  the  necessary  sal- 
aries. To  remedy  this  condition  California,  in  1921, 
provided  for  the  salaries  from  the  school  fund,  and 
placed  their  selection  and  appointment  with  the  county 
superintendents.  The  New  York  plan  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  district  superintendents,  for  divisions  of  a 
county  small  ^enough  to  enable  the   superintendent 


A  NEW  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION         SIS 

to  reach  the  teachers,  and  with  freedom  given  the 
appointing  boards  to  go  anywhere  they  desire  to  secure 
men  or  women  for  the  office,  is  a  plan  which  ought  to 
secure  fairly  good  results.  The  Maryland  and  the  Utah 
systems,  where  the  county  constitutes  one  school  dis- 
trict and  the  county  is  the  unit,  represent  perhaps  the 
best  we  have  to-day  in  rural-school  supervision. 

In  most  of  our  states,  though,  the  supervision  of 
our  rural  and  town  schools  is  clerical,  statistical,  and 
financial,  rather  than  educational  in  type.  These 
aspects  of  the  work  are  often  handled  in  a  very  satis- 
factory manner,  but  the  educational  supervision  too 
often  consists  only  of  the  yearly  visit,  for  a  few  hours, 
of  the  county  superintendent;  perhaps  a  final  written 
examination  of  the  pupils,  on  uniform  questions  sent 
out  from  the  superintendent's  office ;  and  unintelligent 
oversight  by  the  district  trustees.  What  the  school  is 
or  is  not,  it  is  or  is  not  almost  entirely  because  of  the 
character  of  the  teacher  in  charge.  Here  and  there 
a  teacher  of  strength  and  large  personal  initiative 
teaches,  for  a  year  or  two,  a  remarkably  efficient 
school;  the  old  stager  and  the  beginner,  on  the  other 
hand,  usually  maintain  only  a  traditional  old-type 
school.  Either  satisfies  the  letter  of  the  law,  because 
there  is  no  professional  oversight  close  enough  to 
know  what  is  going  on  or  strong  enough  to  compel 
improvement.  The  teacher  is  left  to  her  own  initiative; 
the  district  trustees  set  the  standards;  the  school  too 
frequently  merely  drifts  along;  and  the  more  intelli- 


314  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

gent  farmers  move  to  town  to  secure  better  educa- 
tional advantages  for  their  children.  Given  such  a  new 
type  of  teacher  as  has  been  described  in  the  last  chap- 
ter and  she  would  probably  soon  be  driven  from  the 
work  by  the  lack  of  teaching  equipment,  the  inaction 
of  the  district  trustees,  and  the  lack  of  effective  sup- 
port from  the  county  educational  authorities.  Under 
the  present  system  progress  is  slow  and  hard  to  make, 
and  in  large  part  because  there  is  at  the  top  no  educa- 
tional leadership,  with  power  to  act.  Good  teachers 
are  worn  out  and  leave  for  the  city  because  the  efiForts 
they  put  forth  secure  such  small  results. 

The  system  to  blame.  There  is  little  use  to  blame 
the  county  superintendent  for  this  state  of  affairs, 
because  he  is  not  to  blame.  He  is  merely  the  product 
of  a  bad  system:  it  is  the  system  itself  which  is  to 
blame.  The  chief  count  against  the  county  superin- 
tendent is  that  he  too  often  openly  defends  the  system 
which  hampers  him,  instead  of  aiding  efforts  to  throw 
it  off  and  secure  one  better  adapted  to  modern  needs. 
We  need,  in  most  of  our  states,  materially  to  strengthen 
the  authority  of  the  county  superintendent  in  dealing 
with  the  district  boards  of  trustees;  to  open  the  way 
for  securing  superintendents  of  larger  insight  and 
broader  knowledge;  and  to  replace  the  present  yearly 
visitation  and  examination  by  close  personal  and  pro- 
fessional supervision,  such  as  our  cities  to-day  enjoy. 
To  do  this,  some  new  legislation,  as  well  as  trained  and 
efficient  supervisors,  will  be  necessary. 


A  NEW  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION  315 

Present  conditions  in  the  county  office.  In  twenty- 
seven  of  the  forty  states  having  a  county  superintend- 
ent, he  is  elected  by  the  people  at  popular  elections. 
In  eighteen  of  the  twenty-eight  states,  he  is  elected  for 
but  two-year  terms,  and  in  two  of  these  eighteen 
states,  the  county  superintendent  is  actually  made 
ineligible,  by  the  state  constitution,  to  serve  more  than 
four  years  in  the  office.  In  other  words,  the  county 
superintendent  of  schools,  a  man  who  ought  to  enter 
the  work  only  after  careful  study  and  training  for  it, 
as  a  life  career,  and  with  the  idea  of  becoming  an  educa- 
tional leader,  as  does  a  city  superintendent,  is  by  the 
people  regarded  merely  as  a  political  officer  and  clerk, 
and  the  office  is  passed  around  among  the  electorate 
without  regard  to  the  effect  of  this  action  on  the 
schools.  The  county  superintendent  must  first  become 
a  resident  of  the  county  and  a  voter,  must  then  work 
up  in  the  party  ranks  and  extend  his  acquaintanceship 
to  secure  a  nomination,  must  win  the  primary  and 
stump  the  county  against  an  opponent,  and  pay  hi? 
political  assessments  and  campaign  expenses,  —  ali 
for  a  temporary  and  poorly-paid  political  job,  and 
always  with  the  risk  of  defeat  staring  him  in  the  face. 
Every  other  year,  in  eighteen  of  our  states,  he  must 
waste  six  months  of  his  time  and  possible  educational 
efficiency  in  such  political  work,  and  he  must  also  keep 
his  political  eye  open  all  the  time  in  between. 

Why  the  cities  draw  the  best.   It  is  not  surprising 
that  the  office  of  county  superintendent  does  not 


316  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

attract  the  best  men  and  women  in  the  teaching  pro- 
fession. The  low  salary  paid,  the  expense  of  securing 
the  office,  the  public  notoriety,  the  humiliation  of 
defeat,  the  short  tenure  of  office,  the  high  protective 
tariff  levied  against  men  and  women  of  training  from 
the  outside  by  the  local-residence  requirement,  and 
the  inability  to  accomplish  much  when  he  has  the 
district  system  to  deal  with,  all  alike  tend  to  keep  the 
best  men  out  of  the  office.  The  position  of  county 
superintendent  of  schools  is  one  of  much  potential 
importance,  and  is  capable  of  being  transformed  into 
one  which  will  render  great  service  to  the  people;  but  in 
most  of  our  states  to-day  it  remains,  to  a  high  degree,  a 
highly-protected  local  industry,  offering  but  temporary 
employment  to  the  few  who  are  willing  to  consider 
political  candidacy,  and  realizing  but  a  small  fraction 
of  the  possible  service  and  efficiency  for  which  the 
people  pay. 

Unlike  the  city  superintendency,  the  office  of  county 
superintendent  offers  no  career  to  any  one.  Too  often 
good  men  go  down  to  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  people 
because  of  having  rendered  honest  and  efficient  service, 
or  are  made  the  victims  of  a  shrewd  canvass  by  an 
opponent  among  an  unthinking  electorate.  In  city- 
school  work  we  should  regard  it  as  highly  unprofes- 
sional for  a  man  to  open  a  campaign  to  secure  the  city 
superintendent's  job  when  the  board  of  education  had 
expressed  no  dissatisfaction  with  him,  but  in  county 
supervision  this  is  regarded  as  the  proper  method  of 


A  NEW  TYPE   OF   SUPERVISION  S17 

procedure.  The  political  method  of  nomination  and 
election  seldom  brings  the  best-prepared  men  to  the 
front;  the  real  merit  of  a  man  for  the  office  has  little  to 
do  with  either  his  salary  or  his  retention  in  the  office; 
and  the  inevitable  result  is  that  the  best-educated  and 
best-trained  of  our  school  men,  whose  services  the 
counties  ought  to  be  bidding  for  to  secure  them  as 
their  leaders,  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the 
office.  The  blighting  influence  of  party  politics  in  the 
county  and  the  personal  politics  and  jealousies  in  the 
districts  alike  combine  to  lay  a  heavy  hand  on  rural 
educational  progress.  Under  the  circumstances,  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  chief  educational 
progress  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  been 
made  by  the  cities,  and  that  the  rural-school  problem 
remains  with  us. 

Where  the  fault  lies.  The  fault  lies,  as  has  been  said 
before,  not  so  much  with  the  county  superintendents 
themselves  as  with  the  system  which  produces  them. 
It  is  the  system  itself  which  is  wrong,  and  no  one  feels 
this  more  than  the  efficient  county  superintendent  who 
to-day  tries  to  make  educational  progress.  On  all  sides 
he  is  cramped  and  hampered,  and  most  so  in  the  states 
where  the  district  system  is  strong.  Say  what  we  may 
for  the  present  system  and  the  fact  still  remains  that 
the  office  of  county  superintendent  of  schools  to-day  is 
but  a  temporary  and  poorly-paid  job,  offering  no  in- 
centive to  any  one  to  prepare  for  it.  If  a  man  to-day 
desires  to  become  a  city-school  principal,  and  rise  to  be 


318  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

a  city  superintendent,  he  first  goes  to  a  normal  school 
or  university  and  prepares  himself  for  the  work  by 
years  of  careful  study  of  educational  theory  and  admin- 
istration, and  he  then  expects  to  be  able  to  enter  the 
work  without  reference  to  residence  or  politics,  and  to 
rise  in  it  on  the  basis  of  his  energy  and  capacity.  Al- 
most nowhere  in  county  supervision,  outside  of  the 
Southern  States  and  the  States  of  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Ohio,  and  Utah,  can  a  man  enter  the  work  or 
retain  his  place  in  it,  solely  on  the  basis  of  merit.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  office  were  taken  entirely  out  of 
politics;  made  an  appointive  instead  of  an  elective 
office;  thrown  open  to  general  competition,  as  high- 
school  principalships  and  city  superintendencies  have 
been;  and  with  salary,  tenure,  and  promotion  based 
on  competency  and  efficient  service;  —  the  office  of 
county  superintendent  could  soon  be  made  one  of  great 
importance,  and  would  offer  a  career  for  which  a  man 
or  woman  would  be  warranted  in  making  long  and 
careful  preparation. 

Stock  arguments.  The  stock  argument  that  the 
present  platf  is  thoroughly  democratic  and  educates 
the  people  is  one  that  has  no  merit  in  it.  The  cities 
are  not  undemocratic  because  they  appoint  their  city 
superintendents  instead  of  electing  them,  nor  are  the 
high-school  districts  because  they  do  not  have  the 
people  nominate  and  vote  for  two  local  residents  every 
time  they  need  a  new  high-school  principal.  The  argu- 
ment that  the  people  are  educated  by  using  the  ballot. 


A  NEW   TYPE  OF   SUPERVISION  319 

which  is  another  stock  argument,  is  exceedingly  fal- 
lacious when  applied  to  the  election  of  what  ought  to 
be  so  distinctly  an  expert  officer  as  a  county  super- 
intendent of  schools.  In  the  present  days  of  prima- 
ries, initiatives,  and  referendums,  there  are  plenty  of 
chances  for  such  education  by  means  of  the  ballot 
without  exercising  it  to  the  injury  of  the  school  system. 
Moreover,  the  education  of  the  people  comes  from 
voting  on  public  issues,  and  not  in  deciding  between 
men  who  are  to  do  work  of  a  highly  expert  and  profes- 
sional type.  The  personal  and  professional  qualities 
demanded  for  the  office  of  county  superintendent  of 
schools  are  such  that  the  people,  as  a  mass,  are  not 
competent  to  decide  between  candidates,  and  in  the 
interests  of  the  education  of  their  children  they  ought 
not  to  be  permitted  to  do  so.  It  would  be  just  as  sen- 
sible to  nominate  and  elect,  by  popular  vote,  a  county 
health-officer,  a  county  entomologist,  or  a  county 
horticulturist,  and  the  results  would  be  about  as  satis- 
factory. 

The  way  out.  To  put  our  rural  and  village  schools  on 
a  proper  basis,  to  provide  the  kind  of  instruction  and 
supervision  children  in  such  schools  ought  to  enjoy, 
and  to  eliminate  the  rural-school  problem,  we  need  to 
eliminate  both  personal  and  party  politics  from  the 
management  of  these  schools,  and  to  put  them,  so  far 
as  management  is  concerned,  on  the  same  basis  as  our 
better-organized  city-school  systems.  This  demands 
the  subordination  of  the  district  system,  the  reorgani- 


320  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION  , 

zation  and  consolidation  of  the  schools,  the  erection  of 
the  county  as  the  unit  for  school  administration,  and 
the  complete  elimination  of  party  politics  from  the 
management  of  the  schools.  Never  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  educational  systems  has  there  been  such 
urgent  need  for  men  of  adequate  educational  prepara- 
tion, deep  social  and  professional  insight,  and  large 
executive  skill  and  personal  power  for  the  supervision 
of  rural  education;  and  such  men,  once  selected  and 
appointed,  need  to  be  given  the  same  tenure,  compen- 
sation, and  free  hand  which  a  superintendent  of  schools 
in  a  well-organized  city-school  system  has  to-day. 
Long  ago  our  cities  abolished  their  districts,  stopped 
electing  their  superintendents  by  popular  vote,  and 
began  to  manage  their  cities  as  a  unit;  and  not  until 
our  counties  introduce  something  of  the  same  unit 
system  into  their  educational  management  can  rural 
education  be  put  on  a  competitive  basis  with  city 
education.  For  the  pleasure  of  electing  a  horde  of 
unnecessary  trustees  and  of  voting  for  another  county 
officer,  the  people  have  as  a  consequence  an  unneces- 
sary number  of  small,  costly,  and  inefficient  rural 
schools,  poorer  teachers  than  is  necessary,  inadequate 
and  often  unsuitable  instruction,  and  supervision  that 
is  little  more  than  a  name. 

What  democracy  should  mean.  Democracy  ought 
to  mean  good  government  and  efficient  administration, 
—  the  best  and  the  most  efficient  that  the  taxes  we  pay 
can  secure.  This,  however,  does  not  of  necessity  mean 


'  A  NEW  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION  321 

that  the  people  should  vote  for  all,  or  even  for  any 
large  number,  of  those  who  are  to  secure  such  govern- 
ment for  them.  With  the  coming  of  the  short  ballot 
in  county  government,  as  it  has  come  in  city  govern- 
ment, one  of  the  first  offices  which  ought  to  be  removed 
from  the  political  column  is  that  of  county  superin- 
tendent of  schools.  Rural-school  administration  and 
supervision,  if  it  is  to  be  properly  done,  is  a  piece  of 
expert  professional  work,  for  which  a  superintendent 
ought  to  prepare  himself  with  care,  and  one  which 
ought  to  be  placed  on  as  high  a  professional  plane  as  is 
the  supervision  of  our  city  schools.  When  this  has  been 
done,  the  reorganization  of  rural  education,  with  cen- 
trally located  rural  schools,  instruction  suited  to  the 
needs  of  country  children,  and  supervision  as  close 
and  effective  as  the  cities  to-day  enjoy,  will  be  easy  of 
accomplishment.  Then  only  will  farmers  cease  moving 
to  the  city  to  secure  better  educational  advantages  for 
their  children.^ 

A  reorganized  ccanty  system.  Utah  and  Maryland 
offer  us  excellent  examples  of  a  good  system  of  county 
school  organization;  and  the  plans  followed  by  some 
other  states,  as,  for  example,  the  supervisory  system  of 
Massachusetts  or  Alabama,  or  the  Nebraska  scheme 
for  the  reorganization  and  consolidation  of  districts, 
possess  some  commendable  features.    The  essentials 

*  Of  1100  cases  of  removal  from  country  to  city  personally  in- 
vestigated recently  by  T.  J.  Coates,  supervisor  of  rural  schools  in 
Kentucky,  more  than  1000  were  caused  by  a  desire  for  better  school, 
church,  and  social  advantages. 


822  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

are  a  small  county  board  of  education,  say  of  five,  only 
a  part  of  whom  go  out  of  office  at  any  one  time,  and 
consisting  of  laymen  elected  by  the  people,  preferably 
at  a  time  distinct  from  the  general  political  election. 
This  body  constitutes  a  county  board  of  education, 
analogous  to  a  city  board  of  education.  This  board 
then  elects  the  county  superintendent  of  schools,  and 
such  assistant  superintendents  or  special  supervisors 
as  are  necessary,  or  as  may  be  required  by  law,  and 
fixes  the  compensation  for  each.  In  making  such  selec- 
tions they  should  be  free  to  go  anywhere  in  the  United 
States  for  the  man  or  woman  for  the  position.  The 
county  board  also  appoints  a  secretary,  with  such  cleri- 
cal assistance  as  is  needed.  The  secretary  and  his  as- 
sistants then  attend  to  all  clerical  and  business  func- 
tions, leaving  the  superintendent  and  his  assistants 
free  to  attend  to  the  supervision  of  the  instruction  in 
the  schools. 

The  county  board.  The  county  board,  with  the 
assistance  of  its  executive  officers,  then  manages  as  a 
unit  the  schools  of  the  county,  outside  of  cities  under 
city  superintendents;  manages  all  strictly  county 
schools,  such  as  county  agricultural  high  schools  and 
county  training  schools;  purchases  and  distributes  all 
school  supplies;  levies  the  county  school  taxes;  and 
pays  out  all  school  funds.  One  very  important  func- 
tion of  such  a  board,  acting  in  conjunction  with  its 
executive  officers,  is  that  of  abolishing  the  present 
unnecessary  districts  and  reorganizing  the  educational 


A  NEW  TYPE   OF  SUPERVISION  823 

system  of  the  county  according  to  some  rational  plan, 
and  with  a  view  to  providing  all  children  in  the  rural 
and  village  districts  with  a  system  of  rural  education 
comparable  in  efficiency  with  that  provided  by  the 
better  city-school  systems  for  their  children.  This 
involves  the  establishment  of  a  number  of  strong  cen- 
tralized schools,  often  with  partial  or  complete  high 
schools  attached. 

The  Utah  and  Maryland  plans  are  fundamental, 
because  they  go  to  the  root  of  the  rural-school  problem. 
The  subordination  of  the  district  system,  the  elimina- 
tion of  personal  and  party  politics  from  the  manage- 
ment of  the  schools,  and  the  reorganization  of  rural 
education  along  good  business  and  professional  lines 
are  absolutely  necessary  prerequisites  to  any  solution 
of  the  problem  of  giving  the  rural  boy  and  girl  educa- 
tional advantages  comparable  to  those  now  enjoyed  by 
city  children. 

The  plan  applied.  Applying  this  plan,  then,  to  the 
suggested  reorganization  of  Ada  ObuJnty,  Idaho,  as 
shown  in  Figs.  66  and  67,  pp.  249  and  250,  the  fol- 
lowing results  would  be  obtained.  Instead  of  the  peo- 
ple electing  one  county  superintendent  of  schools  from 
among  their  own  number,  and  at  the  low  salary  JSxed 
by  law,  the  people  would  then  elect  a  county  board  of 
education  of  five  citizens,  who,  in  turn,  would  appoint 
a  county  superintendent  of  schools  to  serve  as  an  edu- 
cational expert,  and  a  secretary  to  manage  the  clerical 
and  business  affairs  of  the  county  office.   In  making 


324  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

these  selections,  the  county  board  would  be  as  free  to 
go  outside  of  the  county,  or  outside  of  the  state  if  it 
seemed  wise  to  do  so,  as  city  boards  of  education  are 
now  free  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  city  superintendent  of 
schools  or  a  grammar  or  high-school  principal.  They 
ought  also  to  be  free  to  fix  the  salary  of  each  person  so 
employed.  What  is  wanted  is  the  best  person  which 
the  money  a  county  can  afford  to  pay  will  secure. 
On  the  recommendation  of  the  superintendent  the 
county  board  would  also  appoint  such  assistant  super- 
intendents, primary  supervisors,  and  supervisors  of 
special  instruction  —  drawing,  music,  agriculture, 
manual  work  —  as  the  best  interests  of  the  schools  of 
the  county  seemed  to  demand. 

The  two  independent  town-school  systems  and  the 
thirty-one  district  schools,  as  shown  in  Fig.  66,  would 
be  consolidated  into  eleven  districts,  following  natural 
community  lines,  as  shown  in  Fig.  67.  This  would  pro- 
vide for  the  future  growth,  and  prevent  much  future 
district  subdivision.  All  of  the  consolidated  schools 
would  contain  a  graded  school,  while  some  would  offer 
two  or  more  years  of  high-school  instruction  in  addition. 
Full  four-year  courses  would  be  maintained  in  each  of 
the  towns.  Should  the  educational  needs  of  the  county 
seem  to  require  it,  a  county  agricultural  high  school 
could  be  developed  at  some  central  point,  from  one  of 
the  two-year  high  schools.  A  county  teachers'  training 
school,  a  county  parental  school,  or  other  special-type 
schools  could    also  be  developed,   if  the   population 


A  NEW  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION  S25 

and  educational  needs  of  the  county  seemed  to  war- 
rant it. 

The  gain  in  supervision.  The  greatest  gain  from 
such  a  reorganization  would  come  from  the  centralized 
professional  leadership,  the  close  supervision,  and  the 
business  organization  which  would  be  provided  for  the 
schools.  Under  such  a  plan  a  system  of  county  schools, 
organized  along  the  lines  of  the  best  city-school  admin- 
istrative experience,  could  be  perfected  for  the  county 
as  well  as  for  the  city.  It  would  then  be  the  business 
of  the  county  board  of  education  to  select  the  most 
capable  leader  obtainable,  pay  him  a  salary  commen- 
surate with  his  worth  and  the  importance  of  the  posi- 
tion, give  him  needed  assistance  to  insure  helpful  per- 
sonal supervision,  and  then  expect  him  to  develop  the 
best  system  of  rural  and  village  schools  throughout  the 
county  which  the  money  at  hand  would  secure.  Uni- 
form terms  and  uniform  tax  rates  would  naturally 
follow,  and  a  uniformly  high  standard  of  rural  and 
vUlage  education  would  soon  come  to  prevail  every- 
where throughout  the  county.  The  schools  of  the 
whole  county  would  then  be  managed  much  as  are  the 
schools  of  a  city-school  system  to-day.  A  New  Eng- 
land town  presents  the  same  idea,  on  a  smaller  scale. 
A  city-school  system  of  twenty-four  school  buildings, 
located  in  diflFerent  parts  of  the  city  and  under  one 
city  superintendent  and  one  city  board  of  education, 
is  entirely  analogous  to  a  county-school  system  of 
twenty -four  consolidated   schools,  under  one  county 


326  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION.   •  9 

superintendent  and  one  county  board  of  education. 
The  difference  is  one  of  distance,  and  not  of  principle; 
and  a  telephone  in  each  school,  connected  with  the 
county  office,  and  an  automobile  for  the  county  super- 
intendent would  largely  eliminate  this.  If  farmers  can 
afford  such  conveniences  for  a  county  agricultural  ad- 
viser, it  ought  also  to  be  possible  to  afford  them  for  a 
county  educational  adviser  and  his  assistants.  All  that 
is  required  is  the  exercise  of  a  little  imagination  and  the 
expenditure  of  a  little  more  money  to  perfect  as  good 
schools  for  the  country  as  are  now  to  be  had  in  the 
cities.  That  such  a  form  of  school  organization  is  not 
imaginary  or  impossible  may  be  seen  from  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  schools  of  Baltimore  County,  Maryland, 
given  in  the  following  chapter. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Classify  the  clerical,  financial,  and  educational  functions  of  a 
county  superintendent  of  schools. 

2.  Distinguish  between  statistical,  clerical,  and  financial  super- 
vision of  schools  on  the  one  hand,  and  educational  supervision 
on  the  other. 

3.  If  your  county  superintendent  spent  half  a  day  visiting  each 
teacher  in  your  county  not  under  a  supervising  principal  or  a 
city  superintendent  of  schools,  and  spent  four  days  each  week  in 
visiting,  how  many  visits  could  he  make  to  each  teacher  each 
school  year? 

4.  Is  the  supervision  as  you  know  it  supervision,  or  inspection? 
Why? 

6.  What  new  lines  of  educational  activity  could  a  county  superin- 
tendent of  schools  in  your  county  engage  in,  to  the  great  advan- 
tage of  the  schools? 

6.  Would  the  county  system,  in  your  judgment,  be  a  good  thing  if 
applied  to  your  state? 


\  A  NEW  TYPE  OF  SUPERVISION  S27 

7.  What  has  been  the  average  tenure  of  office  of  the  county 
superintendent  in  your  county? 

8.  To  what  extent  is  the  county  the  unit  for  other  public  affairs 
in  your  state? 

9.  Work  out  a  good  plan  for  a  county  system  of  school  administra- 
tion to  fit  the  needs  of  the  schools  of  your  county. 

10.  Do  you  see  anything  impractical  in  the  Idaho  county-unit  plan 
as  applied  on  pages  323-25? 

11.  Apply  the  present  district  system  of  organization  and  control 
to  a  city  of  100  teachers,  and  what  would  be  the  result? 

12.  Read  the  third  part  of  the  following  chapter,  describing  a 
county-unit  school  system,  and  see  if  it  does  not  give  you  new 
ideas  as^to  the  possibilities  of  county-school  supervision. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

NOTEWORTHY  EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION 

This  chapter,  like  chapter  vi,  is  intended  to  be 
merely  descriptive  of  a  few  noteworthy  examples  of 
rural  educational  effort  of  the  kind  the  preceding  pages 
have  tried  to  outline  as  desirable.  It  is  not  claimed 
that  the  examples  described  are  the  best  of  their  class, 
but  only  that  they  are  typical,  and  that  they  illustrate 
well  what  may  be  done  along  the  line  of  redirecting 
and  revitalizing  our  rural  schools. 

I.  A  ONE-ROOM  RURAL  SCHOOL 

The  rural  school  building  shown  in  the  plate  oppo- 
site this  page  was  erected  on  the  campus  of  the  State 
Normal  School  at  Kirksville,  Missouri,  on  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  ungraded  school  there,  in  1907.  The 
children  come  chiefly  from  two  different  and  adjacent 
rural  school  districts,  and  are  transported  to  and  fro 
each  day  in  the  transportation  wagons,  as  shown  in  the 
picture.  The  school  is  in  charge  of  a  regular  teacher, 
and  pupils  from  the  normal  school  go  to  it  for  obser- 
vation and  practice.  A  number  of  other  normal  schools, 
in  different  states,  have  since  established  somewhat 
similar  schools. 


m  0) 

:5  a 


®  s 

C/3  Sf) 


EXAJVIPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION      329 

The  building  represents  what  can  be  done,  at  no 
great  expense,  to  provide  a  building  with  modern  con- 
veniences for  the  one-room  rural  school.  In  such  a 
building  a  redirected  school,  such  as  is  described  in 
chapter  xi,  is  easily  possible.  The  basement,  ground 
floor,  and  attic  were  all  equipped  and  put  to  use,  as 
may  be  seen  from  the  floor  plans  here  reproduced.  This 
building,  with  full  equipment,  could  probably  be  du- 
plicated to-day  in  most  communities  for  not  to  exceed 
$5000,  and  in  many  communities  for  less.  The  build- 
ing ha«s  been  copied,  in  more  or  less  modified  form,  by 
school  authorities  in  Missouri  and  Iowa,  and,  where 
one-room  schools  must  be  maintained,  represents  a 
desirable  type  of  rural  building.^ 

Basement.  This  is  twenty-eight  by  thirty-six  feet 
in  size,  with  a  clear  head  room  of  eight  feet.  The  floor 
is  of  concrete,  underlaid  with  porous  tile  and  cinders. 
The  tile  leads  into  a  sewer.  The  walls  are  of  concrete 
also,  protected  from  undue  moisture  by  an  outside  tile, 
running  around  the  building,  also  leading  into  the 
sewer.  The  space  above  the  tile  is  filled  with  cinders. 
The  outside  entrance  to  the  basement  is  also  of  con- 
crete, with  a  sewer  drain  through  the  lower  step. 

The  basement  has  eight  compartments:  (1)  A 
furnace-room,  containing  a  hot-air  furnace,  inclosed  by 
galvanized  iron;  a  double  cold-air  duct,  with  an  electric 
fan;  and  a  gas  water-heater.  (2)  A  coal-bin,  six  by 
eight  feet  in  size.  (3)  A  bulb  or  plant  room,  three 
^  See  also  Figs.  51  and  54,  for  other  model  rural  school  buildings. 


330 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


by  eight  feet,  for  fall,  winter,  and  spring  storage  of 
materials.  (4)  A  dark  room,  four  by  eight  feet,  for 
children's  experiments  in  photography.  (5)  A  laundry- 

i    [CWTWAWCCI     I 


COLD  AIR  DUCT. 
WATER  TANK 
40O,CAL 


DRYWC  ROOM 


OVMNASIUM    f2»X23 


BASKMCNT     PLAN 

Fia.  72.    BASEMENT  PLAK  OF  MODEL  RURAL  SCHOOL 

room  five  by  twenty-one  feet,  for  teaching  laundering, 
with  tubs,  drain,  and  drying  apparatus.  (6)  A  gym- 
nasium, thirteen  by  twenty-three  feet,  for  indoor  games, 
in  stormy  weather.  (7)  A  tank-room,  containing  a 
four-hundred-gallon  pneumatic  pressure-tank,  stor- 
age battery  for  electricity,  hand-pump  for  emergencies, 
sewer-pipe,  floor-drain,  etc.  (8)  An  engine-room,  con- 
taining a  gasoline  engine,  water-pump,  electrical 
generator,  switchboard,  water-tank  for  cooling  the 


EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION      331 

gasoline  engine,  weight  for  gas  pressure,  gas  mixer, 
batteries,  pipes,  wires,  etc. 

The  pumps  lift  water  from  a  well  into  the  pressure- 
tank,  through  pipes  below  the  frost  line.  Gasoline  is 
admitted,  through  pipes  below  the  frost  line,  from  two 
forty-gallon  underground  tanks,  placed  thirty  feet 
from  the  building.  The  basement,  first  floor,  and  attic 
are  wired  for  electric  lights,  so  that  the  building  may  be 
used  in  the  evening  for  neighborhood  purposes.  The 
gasoline  engine,  furnace,  and  other  appliances  can  be 
managed  by  the  boys,  as  such  machinery  is  not  differ- 
ent from  what  they  will  use  later  on  the  farm. 

First-floor  plan.  The  schoolroom  is  twenty-two  by 
twenty-seven  feet  in  the  clear.  The  children  face  the 
east,  and  the  light  comes  in  from  the  north.  A  ground- 
glass  window  at  the  rear  admits  sunlight,  for  sanitary 
reasons.  The  schoolroom  has  adjustable  seats  and 
desks,  teacher's  desk,  and  telephone.  An  alcove  or 
closet  is  on  the  east  side  for  books,  teacher's  wraps,  etc. 
At  the  back  of  the  room  is  a  stereopticon,  with  a 
screen  at  the  front.  The  school  has  an  organ,  book- 
cases, shelves,  and  teaching  apparatus.  Pure  air 
enters  above  the  children's  heads  from  the  furnace, 
and  passes  out  at  the  floor  through  the  open  fireplace. 

Both  boys  and  girls  have  separate  toilet-rooms 
within  the  building,  containing  a  washbowl  with  hot 
and  cold  water,  toilet,  and  shower,  as  well  as  mirrors, 
towel-racks,  and  separate  water-heaters.  The  walls 
between  the  toilet-rooms  are  deadened,  and  each  is 


832 


RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 


reached  from  separate  cloak-  and  hat-rooms.  Girls 
may  enter  the  building  and  reach  the  girls'  toilet-room 
by  a  side  entrance,  and  without  passing  through  the 


rta*T  rboon  puw 
Fio.  73.    FIRST-FLOOR  PLAN  OP  MODEL  RURAL  SCHOOL 

schoolroom.  A  drinking-fountain  on  this  floor  would 
be  a  desirable  addition,  and  could  easily  be  supplied 
from  the  pressure-tank.  Stairs  lead  both  to  the  attic 
and  to  the  basement. 

Attic  plan.  This  is  thirty-five  by  fifteen  feet  in  size, 
and  seven  and  one  half  feet  to  the  ceiling,  in  the  middle 
of  the  building.  While  an  attic  is  a  common  feature  in 
schoolhouses,  this  is  one  of  the  few  to  be  put  to  use. 
Still  more  attic  room  could  have  been  secured  if  the 


EXAMPLES   IN  RURAL  EDUCATION      333 

roof  had  been  humped  out  (gambrel  roof)  instead  of 
being  doubled  in  on  the  sides.  The  attic  is  furnished 
with  gas  for  cooking  and  with  electricity  for  lighting. 
It  has  a  gasoline  stove;  a  large  sink,  such  as  a  good 


,  t 

:           AB-  xzo- 

[ SKV;';  L.IOHT 

TABLE 

SINK 

\\l// 

J 

i 

r 1! 

{  >     48    <iX20- 
i         SKY  HUCtfT 


CMOLINC 
.^CAiATOVB 


S*N1TABV    Q,     Q 


T_4e"xao" 

i     SKV  LIGHT 


4TR.BCNU 

ITRBENCtl 

ATTIC   PL  AM 

Fig.  74.    ATTIC   PLAN   OF  MODEL  RURAL  SCHOOL 

kitchen  usually  contains;  cupboards,  boxes,  and  re- 
ceptacles, for  experiments  in  home  economics;  wash- 
bowl, drinking-fountain,  and  table.  It  also  contains 
two  manual-training  benches  for  work  in  wood;  a 
disinfecting  apparatus,  and  a  portable  chemistry- 
agriculture  laboratory;  and  numerous  other  equip- 
ments for  experimental  work.  Besides  the  end  win- 
dows, four  skylights,  one  by  eight  feet  in  size,  provide 
additional  light.  The  room  is  heated  by  hot  air  from 


S34  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

the  furnace.  It  also  has  a  disappearing  bed,  which 
slides  into  the  wall  under  the  roof,  for  the  use  of  the 
person  who  acts  as  janitor,  as  well  as  a  mirror,  wash- 
bowl, and  towel-rack. 

II.   AN  ILLINOIS  CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOL 

The  consolidated  school  illustrated  and  described 
here  is  the  Harlem  Consolidated  School,  located  in 
Winnebago  County,  Illinois.  The  consolidated  district 
was  formed  in  1910,  by  the  imion  of  four  rural  districts, 
and  the  school  building  was  completed  in  March,  1911, 
at  a  cost  of  $17,700.  In  1919  a  $22,000  addition 
was  made  to  the  main  building,  the  result  of  which 
was  to  raise  the  building  one  more  story,  and  give  the 
school  three  more  classrooms  and  a  combined  audi- 
torium and  gymnasium.  The  consolidated  district  com- 
prises eighteen  sections  (one  half  a  township)  of  land, 
but  lies  in  four  different  townships.  This  illustrates 
how  a  rural  social  community  may  bear  little  or  no 
relation  to  township  organization. 

The  assessed  valuation  of  the  four  rural  districts 
uniting,  in  1909,  was  $71,419,  $68,206,  $72,114,  and 
$142,666  respectively;  or  a  total  assessed  valuation  of 
$354,405  for  the  consolidated  district.  Bonds  for 
$17,700  were  issued;  bearing  five  per  cent  interest  and 
payable  in  fifteen  annual  payments,  the  first  payment 
to  be  made  five  years  after  their  date.  It  was  estimated 
that  in  five  years  the  assessed  valuation  of  the  district 
would  so  increase,  largely  because  of  the  new  consoli- 


^  .H 


The  Domestic  Science  Laboratory. 


The  Grammar-Grade  Classroom. 
THE   HARLEM   CONSOLIDATED   SCHOOL,   II 


EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION      335 

dated  school,  that  the  tax  for  paying  the  bonds  would 
be  relatively  light.  In  1910,  the  first  year  of  the  con- 
solidation, the  valuation  increased  from  $354,405  to 
$383,797;  in  1911,  to  $487,365;  in  1912  to  $489,266; 
and  by  1920  had  increased  to  approximately  one  mil- 
lion dollars. 

The  year  before  consolidation  the  four  districts 
levied  a  total  of  $1600  in  school  taxes,  or  an  average  of 
$400  per  district,  for  all  purposes.  The  first  levy  (1910) 
for  the  consolidated  district  was  for  $3500;  the  second 
(1911)  was  for  $4500;  and  the  third  (1912)  was  for 
$5500.  The  rate  of  tax  in  1911  was  the  same,  however, 
as  in  1910,  due  to  the  increase  in  valuations.  The  rate 
of  tax  levied  in  1912  was  only  seventy-five  per  cent  of 
the  amount  allowed  by  law,  and  but  seventy  per  cent 
of  that  levied  for  city  schools  at  the  county-seat  town 
of  Rockford.  In  1909  no  high-school  facilities  were  pro- 
vided by  any  of  the  districts,  while  the  new  consoli- 
dated district  now  offers  a  four-year  high-school  course, 
employs  five  teachers  instead  of  four,  and  provides 
a  nine-months'  school  term  for  all  children  in  the 
four  original  districts.  The  chief  reasons  for  the  in- 
crease of  tax  were  that  the  districts  before  had  done  so 
little;  that  the  new  school  paid  larger  salaries  than 
formerly;  provided  more  teachers  than  before  consoli- 
dation; added  four  years  to  the  course  of  instruction, 
and  lengthened  the  term ;  and  that  the  area  consolidat- 
ing (half  a  township)  is  small.  An  area  one  half  larger 
would  have  afforded  more  pupils,  reduced  the  per 


836  RURAL  LIFE   AND  EDUCATION 

capita  cost,  and  reduced  the  tax  rate  one  third.  A 
trolley  line  runs  through  the  consolidated  district,  and 
a  special  five-cent  fare  is  granted  the  pupils  from  any 
part  of  it. 

The  plates  which  accompany  this  description  show 
something  of  the  nature  of  the  school  and  its  work. 
The  first  plate  shows  the  building  and  the  pupils. 
The  picture  also  shows  the  organized  play  which  is 
a  feature  of  the  school,  the  track  team  being  at  the 
right,  and  the  girls'  basketball  team  at  the  left.  On 
the  opposite  side  of  the  building  is  the  school  garden, 
for  outdoor  work  in  agriculture.  The  drawing  oppo- 
site shows  the  grounds,  and  the  way  they  have  been 
laid  off  into  playgrounds,  school  gardens,  and  lawns. 
The  figures  around  the  border  of  the  grounds  refer  to 
a  planting  plan  prepared  by  the  department  of  horti- 
culture of  the  College  of  Agriculture  of  the  University 
of  Illinois. 

The  pictures  given  on  the  reverse  of  the  plate  show- 
ing the  school  give  two  views  of  the  interior  of  the 
building.  The  upper  half  of  the  plate  shows  the  domes- 
tic-science room,  and  the  lower  half  of  the  same  plate 
shows  one  of  the  classrooms,  fitted  with  steel  seats, 
lights,  etc.  The  building  is  heated  by  steam  heat, 
lighted  by  electricity,  and  has  running  water,  drinking- 
fountains,  toilet-rooms,  etc. 

Here  in  the  open  country  is  a  school  of  101  pupils, 
when  it  began,  organized  into  primary  school,  grammar 
school,  and  high  school,  and  offering  a  rich  course  of 


EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION      337 


Fio.  T5.    THE  HARLEM  CONSOLIDATED  SOHOOIo 
GROUNDS,  WINNEBAGO  COUNTY,  ILL. 


S38  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

instruction  adapted  to  rural  needs.  By  1920  the  enroll- 
ment had  increased  to  305  pupils,  50  of  whom  were  in 
the  high  school.  Thus  rapidly  will  a  good  school  grow. 
Between  it  and  the  four  little  rural  schools  it  has  sup- 
planted there  is  almost  no  comparison.  The  present 
school  is  an  object  of  much  community  pride;  the  for- 
mer schools  were  objects  of  community  neglect.  Na- 
ture study,  drawing,  handwork,  and  physical  train- 
ing are  given  in  the  grades;  agriculture  and  manual 
training  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades;  sewing 
in  the  eighth  grade;  and  agriculture,  manual  train- 
ing, sewing,  domestic  science,  and  commercial  studies, 
as  well  as  mathematics,  history,  English,  and  science, 
in  the  high  school.  Practically  one  fifth  of  the  en- 
rollment in  the  consolidated  school  now  is  of  chil- 
dren over  fourteen  years  of  age,  whereas  before  con- 
solidation there  were  practically  no  children  over 
that  age  in  any  of  the  rural  schools  uniting  to  form 
the  consolidated  school.  Instead  of  four  little  schools, 
enrolling  from  eighteen  to  twenty  pupils  each, 
with  one  teacher,  and  little  or  no  school  spirit, 
there  is  now  a  consolidated  school  enrolling  three 
hundred  and  five  pupils  and  possessed  of  a  spirit 
which  is  of  the  first  importance  in  the  education  of 
children.  It  has  cost  more  money,  to  be  sure,  the  local 
assessment  for  1921  being  approximately  $29,000. 
Part  of  the  increase  is  because  the  districts  before  con- 
solidation did  so  little,  and  part  because  of  new  un- 
dertakings, but  the  increased  returns  have  justified 


EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION       339 

the  larger  expenditure.  The  county  superintendent, 
in  speaking  of  this  school  well  said:  "Better  country 
schools  will  come  when  more  money  is  expended  in  a 
better  way.  There  is  no  other  way."  This  school  cer- 
tainly represents  the  better  way. 

III.   A  COLORADO  COMMUNITY-CENTER 
CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOL 

Within  the  past  few  years  a  large  number  of  excel- 
lent consolidated  schools  have  been  developed  in  the 
State  of  Colorado,  many  of  them  ranking  among  the 
best  to  be  found  in  the  United  States.  Among  a  num- 
ber that  have  become  noted  stands  the  Sargent  Con- 
solidated School,  and  it  is  chosen  for  description  here  in 
part  because  it  forms  an  excellent  example  of  the  kind 
of  schools  rural  people  might  provide  for  themselves 
if  they  would,  in  part  for  the  important  community 
church  connected  with  the  undertaking,  and  in  part 
because  we  have  good  and  recent  information  as  to  its 
work. 

The  school  is  located  in  the  open  country,  in  south 
central  Colorado,  in  Saguache  County,  in  a  northward 
extension  of  the  Rio  Grande  Valley,  close  to  the  Con- 
tinental divide.  Regarding  this  school  and  community 
center  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from  a  recent  de- 
scription by  Professor  C.  G.  Sargent,  Professor  of 
Rural  Education  in  the  Colorado  Agricultural  College. 
He  says: 


340  RURAL  LIFE   AND   EDUCATION 

The  Consolidated  School 

The  consolidation  campaign  started  here  in  1916,  and 
it  took  two  years  to  complete  the  community  organ- 
ization. Before  anything  else  could  be  done  the  com- 
munity itself  had  to  be  made,  since  it  did  not  exist  at 
the  time.  After  a  brief  educational  campaign  three 
districts  were  consolidated.  The  schools  were  not  cen- 
tralized at  once,  but  the  campaign  was  continued  to 
get  more  districts  into  the  combination.  A  year  later 
two  more  districts  united,  at  the  end  of  the  second  year 
a  sixth,  and  along  with  these  some  large  portions  of 
adjoining  districts  were  annexed  by  the  county  super- 
intendent by  petition,  making  the  district  about  as 
large  as  nine  ordinary  districts  (see  Fig.  58,  page  234, 
for  map  of  the  district).  It  is  approximately  square, 
contains  100  square  miles,  250  farm  homes,  a  popula- 
tion of  1000  people,  and  an  assessed  valuation  of 
$3,745,750.  The  consolidated  district,  which  is  a  real 
community  now,  contains  within  its  borders  about 
everything  it  takes  to  build,  equip,  and  operate  an 
efficient  consolidated  school  and  community  center. 
Up  to  the  present  time  (1921)  twelve  special  elections 
have  been  held  to  complete  the  organization  of  the 
district,  and  to  vote  bonds  for  the  extensive  building 
campaign  which  is  now  just  completed. 

A  fine  new  school  and  community  building  was  ded- 
icated in  April,  1918.  At  that  time  the  people  thought 
this  building  was  large  enough  to  accommodate  the 


The  New  High  School  and  Community-Center  Building. 


The  Original  Consolidated  School,  now  used  for  the  Elementary  School. 

THE  SARGENT  CONSOLIDATED  SCHOOL,  NEAR  MONTE  VISTA, 
COLORADO 


EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION       341 

community  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Before  this 
structure  was  completed,  work  was  started  on  a  com- 
bined garage  and  gymnasium,  48  x  60  feet.  This  was 
to  accommodate  the  twelve  large  auto  busses  now  in  use 
to  transport  350  children  daily,  and  also  to  provide  a 
suitable  place  for  indoor  games,  as  well  as  to  serve  for 
many  other  uses.  While  these  two  buildings  were 
under  construction  work  was  started  on  a  nine-room 
home  for  the  superintendent  and  other  men  teachers, 
and  an  equally  modern  teacherage  of  eleven  rooms  for 
the  women  teachers.  Along  with  this  extensive  build- 
ing campaign  an  eight-room  house  was  built  by  the 
residents  of  the  district  for  the  community  pastor, 
making  five  service  buildings  all  located  on  the  same 
site. 

After  these  buildings  had  been  completed  and  occu- 
pied, the  succeeding  two  years  were  devoted  to  per- 
fecting the  organization  of  the  school  and  the  further 
organization  of  the  community  activities  that  center 
there.  The  school  has  continued  to  grow  from  month 
to  month  until  now  the  enrollment  has  reached  381, 
and  68  of  these  are  in  the  four-year  high  school. 
Four  years  ago  these  children  attended  nothing  but 
one-room  schools.  Fifteen  teachers  are  employed, 
and  the  superintendent  is  not  only  an  able  educator 
but  he  is  also  a  community  leader  of  marked  ability. 

Even  before  the  school  was  firmly  established  in  the 
new  building,  the  people  had  already  begun  to  plan  a 
variety  of  uses  for  their  community  plant.    A  com- 


342  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

> 

munity  Sunday  school  was  jSrst  organized.  Three 
months  later  its  enrollment  had  reached  the  300  mark, 
and  its  success  just  as  marked  as  that  of  the  public 
school.  With  both  the  public  school  and  the  Sunday 
school  in  successful  operation,  it  was  next  suggested 
that  a  community  church  be  organized,  and  this  was 
done  in  May,  1918.  Seventy  members  were  received 
into  fellowship  the  first  Sunday.  The  public  school, 
Sunday  school,  and  the  community  church  are  now  all 
growingjand  flourishing  institutions,  all  using  the  same 
plant.  With  the  school  enrollment  near  the  400  mark, 
with  the  Sunday  school  above  that,  with  the  regular 
church  services,  and  with  numerous  community  meet- 
ings all  requiring  more  rooms  and  a  still  larger  audi- 
torium, the  community  decided  to  continue  its  build- 
ing campaign. 

In  June,  1920,  another  bond  issue,  for  $125,000, 
was  voted  to  build  a  still  larger  building  to  serve  as  a 
junior  and  senior  high  school,  with  an  auditorium 
seating  1000,  and  still  another  teacherage  to  serve  as 
a  home  for  the  principal  of  the  high  school  and  other 
male  employees  of  the  district.  These  buildings  are 
now  completed  and  in  use.  ^ 

These  seven  buildings  are  all  located  on  a  fine  four- 
teen-acre  tract  of  good  irrigated  land  in  the  center  of 
the  district,  and  the  entire  plant  has  a  present  value  of 
$190,000.  Yet  it  is  in  the  open  country,  and  there  is 
not  a  farmhouse  within  half  a  mile  of  these  buildings. 

The  school  itself  has  been  a  marked  success  from  the 


[EXAMPLES  IN   RURAL  EDUCATION       843 

beginning,  and  has  excited  the  wonder  and  admiration 
of  hundreds  of  visitors.  Twice  as  many  children  are 
now  in  the  school  as  ever  attended  the  old  schools; 
the  daily  attendance  is  fifty  per  cent  higher  than  it 
ever  was  in  the  old  ones;  a  completely  graded  school 
and  a  four-years'  high  school  have  been  provided; 
the  term  is  nine  months ;  the  character  of  the  instruc- 
tion given  is  on  a  par  with  that  in  good  city  schools; 
the  educational  opportunities  of  400  children  have  been 
equalized;  and  all  of  them  are  being  educated  in  the 
finest  and  most  complete  country  school  to  be  found 
anywhere,  and  under  an  environment  as  nearly  ideal 
as  one  could  imagine.  Practically  all  of  the  children 
are  in  school,  and  ten  times  as  many  are  now  enrolled 
in  this  good  country  high  school  as  ever  went  away 
from  home  to  school  before  this  one  was  built. 

All  of  the  standard  subjects  are  found  in  the  curric- 
ulum, and  in  addition  courses  in  vocational  home- 
making,  agriculture,  and  farm  shop  are  also  offered, 
and  their  support  contributed  to  from  State  and 
Federal  funds.  Outdoor  games  and  athletics  are  di- 
rected and  supervised  by  competent  teachers,  and  this 
school  has  been  very  successful  in  competitive  games 
with  other  schools  in  this  part  of  the  state.  Some  of  the 
teachers  coach  the  football,  basketball,  baseball,  and 
track  teams,  while  others  direct  simpler  games  and 
play  activities  of  the  younger  children,  so  that  proper 
physical  development  of  all  these  children  receives 
good  attention  from  volunteer  workers  and  without 


S44  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION  .  •  ^ 

expense  to  the  district.  The  teachers  live  at  the  school 
and  are  available  for  this  service. 

The  Community  Church 

The  work  of  the  public  school  is  supplemented  by 
regular  and  systematic  religious  instruction  in  the 
Sunday  school,  which  has  an  enrollment  of  435  and 
an  average  Sunday  attendance  of  near  300.  In  May, 
1921,  the  community  church  membership  was  202. 
The  women's  missionary  society  has  a  membership  of 
94,  and  there  are  three  flourishing  Christian  Endeavor 
societies.  The  senior  society  has  a  membership  of  65, 
the  intermediate  of  23,  and  the  juniors  of  34,  making 
a  total  of  122.  Besides  all  these  organizations  there  is 
a  live  Sunday-school  athletic  association  with  a  mem- 
bership of  50. 

The  community  church  is  governed  by  evangelical 
standards,  has  a  constitutional  form  of  organization, 
and  is  not  controlled  by  any  denomination.  Men  and 
women  representing  nine  different  denominations,  and 
many  others  who  before  uniting  with  this  church  were 
not  members  of  any  church,  are  fast  learning  to  wor- 
ship the  same  God  in  the  same  house  of  worship,  at 
the  same  time  and  in  pretty  much  the  same  way. 

The  two  large  school  buildings  and  the  garage  and 
gymnasium  not  only  take  care  of  the  daily  education 
of  the  children,  but  the  classrooms  are  used  for  Sun- 
day-school classes  and  the  large  auditorium  is  used  for 
church  services  and  all  large  community  meetings.  In 


.  •  •  •  EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION       S45 

addition  to  these  buildings,  this  community  has  pro- 
vided three  modern  teacherages  and  a  parsonage, 
making  34  rooms  in  all  for  its  workers,  all  of  whom  live 
under  the  most  pleasant  and  congenial  surroundings. 
The  teachers  not  only  have  the  most  favorable  oppor- 
tunities to  perform  their  regular  school  duties  with 
the  highest  degree  of  eJBBciency,  but  they  also  have 
the  finest  opportunity  to  engage  in  many  community 
activities  that  are  of  great  value  to  the  people  of  the 
district. 

Some  of  the  teachers  teach  classes  in  the  Sunday 
school,  some  are  officers  and  leaders  in  the  Christian 
Endeavor  societies,  and  in  these  and  many  other  ways 
they  make  themselves  useful  in  the  community  activ- 
ities that  are  thus  made  more  successful  than  they 
would  otherwise  be. 

This  is  an  excellent  example  of  what  a  community 
may  do  for  itself  by  cooperative  effort.  These  people 
have  mad'e  adequate  provision  for  their  educational, 
social,  and  religious  needs,  and  instead  of  families 
moving  out  of  the  district  to  town,  as  they  were  doing 
when  this  movement  started,  they  are  now  moving 
in,  and  many  new  farmhouses  are  being  built  by  new 
famihes  anxious  to  establish  homes  in  this  progressive 
district. 

These  people  have  their  children  in  a  good  school  for 
twelve  years,  and  do  not  need  to  send  them  away  from 
home  until  they  are  prepared  for  college.  They  not 
only  receive  religious  instruction  in  the  Sunday  school 


846  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION  • 

and  community  church,  enjoy  social  intercourse  in 
a  larger  and  richer  sphere  than  they  ever  did  before, 
but  they  meet  their  fellows  in  larger  groups,  in  ath- 
letic contests,  literary  and  musical  organizations, 
learn  to  appear  in  public,  and  in  all  these  and  other 
ways  prepare  themselves  for  civic  duties. 

The  plant  is  in  operation  twelve  months  in  the  year, 
and  the  school  and  all  the  educational  work  connected 
with  it  is  carried  on  on  a  twelve-mill  tax  levy,  which  is 
less  than  that  paid  by  many  of  the  town  school  systems 
of  the  state. 

IV.    A   COUNTY-UNIT   SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

Baltimore  County,  Maryland,  is  an  excellent  exam- 
ple of  the  county  unit  of  school  organization  and  ad- 
ministration, and  also  serves  as  an  excellent  example  of 
what  can  be  accomplished  in  the  improvement  of  rural 
education,  with  good  leadership  and  by  patient  effort, 
and  under  proper  educational  conditions.  The  story  is 
so  interesting  and  so  illustrative  of  possibilities  that 
it  is  reproduced  here. 

Baltimore  County,  Maryland,  has  an  area  of  630 
square  miles  (approximately  25  miles  square),  and  is 
entirely  separate  and  distinct  from  the  city  of  Balti- 
more. There  aire  in  the  county,  in  round  numbers,  50 
one-teacher  rural  schools,  50  two-teacher  rural  and  vil- 
lage schools,  and  45  schools  having  from  3  to  49  teach- 
ers. The  largest  schools  are  near  the  city  of  Balti- 
more.   A  number  of  the  schools  having  3  or  more 


1^ 

«       .    EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION       347 

teachers  are  consolidated  schools,  located  in  the  vil- 
lages and  rural  communities.  The  county  school- 
system  thus  consists  of  145  buildings,  spread  over  an 
area  of  630  square  miles,  and  with  something  over  400 
teachers  employed;  as  compared  with  105  buildings 
and  about  1800  teachers  for  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and 
condensed  within  an  area  of  30  square  miles.  In  Mary- 
land the  coulnty,  and  not  the  township  or  the  district, 
is  the  unit  of  educational  organization  and  adminis- 
tration. For  each  county  a  county  board  of  education 
is  appointed.  These  county  boards  consist  of  either 
three  or  six  persons,  appointed  for  six-year  terms,  one 
third  going  out  of  office  every  two  years.  In  Baltimore 
County  the  board  consists  of  six  members,  and  is 
composed  of  farmers,  merchants  and  other  men  of 
affairs. 

Each  county  board  of  education  practically  has 
entire  control  of  the  school  affairs  of  the  county, 
with  the  one  exception  that  county  school  taxes,  above 
a  certain  legal  maximum,  must  first  be  approved 
by  the  county  governmental  authorities.  The  ex- 
penditure of  all  school  moneys  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
county  board  of  education,  and  funds  are  appor- 
tioned as  the  needs  of  the  different  schools  of  the 
county  require,  and  without  regard  to  the  taxable 
wealth  of  the  different  communities.  This  results  in  an 
equalization  of  both  the  burdens  and  the  advantages 
of  education,  over  the  whole  county,  just  as  they  are 
to-day  equalized  over  a  whole  city.   In  other  words, 


848  RURAL  LIFE  AND   EDUCATION 

equally  good  schools,  equally  long  terms,  and  equally 
good  salaries  are  provided  for  all  the  schools  of  the 
county,  and  without  reference  to  the  taxpaying  power 
of  the  different  communities. 

The  county  superintendent  of  schools  is  selected  and 
appointed  by  the  county  board  of  education.  He  must 
be  a  college  graduate,  and  in  addition  must  have  had 
at  least  one  year  of  professional  preparation  in  a  stand- 
ard college  or  university,  and  successful  experience  as 
a  teacher.  He  acts  as  the  executive  officer  of  the  county 
board  of  education,  organizes  and  supervises  the 
schools,  interprets  the  school  law,  nominates  all 
teachers  for  appointment  and  assigns  and  transfers 
them  as  he  deems  best,  prepares  the  course  of  study, 
selects  all  books  and  equipment  for  purchase,  prepares 
the  annual  school  budget,  and  oversees  all  repairs  to 
the  school  plant. 

District  boards  of  school  trustees  exist  for  each 
school,  but  these  are  appointed  by  the  county  board  of 
education  each  year.  A  district  board  is  allowed  to 
approve  the  selection  of  the  principal  for  its  school,  who 
acts  as  secretary  of  the  district  board.  The  functions 
of  these  district  boards  are  confined  to  the  above; 
to  the  care  of  school-houses  and  furniture;  to  the  super- 
vising of  the  repair  of  the  schoolhouse,  when  directed 
to  do  so  by  the  county  board;  and  they  may  also  ad- 
mit, suspend,  and  expel  pupils,  and  exercise  limited 
local  supervision  over  the  schools.  With  the  details  of 
the  work  of  instruction  they  have  little  or  nothing  to 


EXAMPLES   IN  RURAL  EDUCATION       349 

do,  as  the  outlining  of  the  course  of  study,  the  selection 
of  textbooks  and  apparatus,  and  the  supervision  of 
instruction  are  strictly  educational  functions  which 
rest  with  the  county  board  of  education  and  its  ap- 
pointed educational  officers. 

The  development  of  a  good  supervisory  system  in 
Baltimore  County  has  been  a  matter  of  growth,  and 
forms  an  interesting  story  of  rural  effort.  It  is  unusual 
chiefly  because  the  political  conditions  in  most  of  our 
states  will  not  permit  of  such  progress  being  made. 

In  1900  the  supervisory  force  consisted  of  a  county 
superintendent  and  one  assistant,  who  together  at- 
tended to  all  the  clerical,  statistical,  and  financial 
work  of  a  large  county  office,  and  also  tried  to  super- 
vise the  schools  of  the  county.  Together  the  two  offi- 
cials were  never  able  to  visit  each  school  in  the  county 
more  than  twice  each  year,  and  even  to  make  such 
rounds  required  one  hundred  days  (five  school  months) 
of  continuous  visiting  from  each.  The  principals  in  all 
of  the  schools  of  the  county  were  also  teaching  princi- 
pals, with  no  free  time  for  supervision,  so  that  the 
schools  of  the  county  were  practically  without  super- 
vision. 

About  this  time  the  board  selected  and  appointed  a 
new  county  superintendent,  a  recent  college  graduate, 
who  had  studied  edu'cational  administration,  and  he 
set  about  the  education  of  his  board  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  educational  conditions  of  his  county.  In 
1902  the  county  board  was  induced  to  employ  a  clerk 


350  RURAL   LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

and  stenographer  for  the  office,  so  as  to  give  the  super- 
intendent and  his  assistant  more  time,  free  from  office 
work,  for  the  supervision  of  the  schools.  Members  of 
the  county  board  were  induced  to  accompany  them, 
and  see  for  themselves  the  needs  of  the  schools.  In 
1901  the  county  superintendent  organized  local  insti- 
tutes, or  teachers'  meetings,  in  all  parts  of  the  county, 
and  soon  the  principals  of  the  larger  schools  were  made 
the  leaders  of  these  local  institutes.  The  superin- 
tendent then  organized  a  "Monthly  Saturday  Round- 
Table  for  Principals  and  Leaders  of  the  Teachers* 
Meetings."  Parents*  meetings  were  also  organized, 
and  civic  associations  were  addressed  by  the  superin- 
tendent and  teachers,  on  the  work  of  the  schools.  This 
was  all  done  as  part  of  a  quiet  but  persistent  campaign 
of  education,  first  of  the  teachers  and  then  of  the  peo- 
ple, with  a  view  to  securing  support  for  a  movement  of 
better  schools,  better  educational  conditions,  and  bet- 
ter salaries.  To  a  selected  list  of  four  thousand  citizens, 
equal  to  one  fifth  of  the  patrons  of  each  school,  annual 
reports,  reprints  of  addresses,  programs  of  work,  etc., 
were  mailed.  The  board  itself  soon  became  responsive 
to  popular  sentiment,  began  to  talk  of  improvement, 
began  to  lay  its  plans  before  the  people,  and  began  to 
show  a  disposition  to  meet  their  wishes  for  better 
schools.  Progress,  though  slow,  soon  became  cumula- 
tive and  sure. 

Additions  to  the  work  now  began  to  be  made. 
Domestic  science  was  introduced,  at  first  in  a  few  local- 


EXAMPLES  IN   RURAL  EDUCATION      351 

ities,  and  by  means  of  a  half-time  teacher.  Soon  the 
women's  clubs  of  other  communities  asked  for  an  ex- 
tension of  the  work,  and  this  was  done.  The  work  is 
now  in  charge  of  a  special  supervisor,  assisted  by  seven 
special  teachers  of  domestic  science.  In  all  except  the 
one-teacher  schools,  home  economics  has  now  been 
provided  for  all  girls  in  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth 
grades,  and  is  continued  through  the  four-year  courses 
of  five  of  the  high  schools  of  the  county.  In  addition, 
about  sixty  grade  teachers  also  teach  sewing  in  the 
fifth  and  sixth  grades  of  the  schools.  Rural  domestic 
science  clubs  have  been  begun,  largely  as  an  out- 
growth of  this  instruction.  Manual  training  was  begun 
in  a  similar  way,  and  with  a  similar  result.  Now  a 
special  supervisor  of  manual  training,  assisted  by  six 
special  teachers,  travels  from  school  to  school  on  a 
weekly  schedule,  and  gives  instruction  to  the  boys  in 
that  subject. 

Farmers'  clubs  and  Granges  began  to  urge  the  board 
to  improve  the  schools.  The  consolidation  of  schools 
soon  began  to  attract  attention,  and  a  number  of 
consolidated  schools  have  been  formed.  The  farmers 
began  to  ask  for  an  agricultural  high  school  for  the 
county,  and  in  1909  this  was  established.  A  demand 
for  better  school  buildings  —  better-heated,  venti- 
lated, and  adapted  to  modern  educational  needs  — 
came  as  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the  campaign  of  edu- 
cation. 

The  need  for  better  supervision  for  the  schools  was 


352  RURAL   LIFE   AND  EDUCATION 

also  kept  before  the  board,  largely  by  illustrations 
from  the  business  world.  Instead  of  freeing  the  prin- 
cipal from  teaching  duties,  the  plan  decided  upon  was 
rather  to  use  the  county  as  a  unit  and  to  strengthen  the 
county  supervisory  force.  In  1905  an  expert  in  pri- 
mary work  was  appointed  as  supervisor  of  primary 
grades  for  the  county.  Grade-teachers'  meetings, 
twice  each  month,  were  then  instituted  for  the  first- 
and  second-grade  teachers.  The  primary  supervisor 
also  began  to  visit  the  primary  classrooms  once  every 
ten  days,  and  to  hold  personal  conferences  with  the 
teachers  as  to  their  work.  The  next  year  the  third-  and 
fourth-grade  teachers  were  included.  The  chief  pur- 
poses of  the  teachers'  meetings  were  to  outline  and 
discuss  the  work  to  be  done,  to  give  the  teachers  defi- 
nite aid,  and  to  create  a  stronger  professional  spirit 
among  them.  The  board,  during  this  second  year, 
appointed  one  of  the  best  primary  teachers  in  the 
county  as  a  substitute  teacher,  it  being  her  chief  work 
to  visit  and  help  teachers  in  their  classrooms,  and  to 
relieve  them  for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time  while  they 
visited  schools,  with  or  under  the  direction  of  the  su- 
perintendent or  supervisor. 

By  1908  the  county  board  of  education  had  become  so 
impressed  with  the  good  results  that  they  appointed  a 
grammar-grade  supervisor,  who,  in  turn,  began  a  sim- 
ilar work  of  organization  and  direction,  beginning  first 
with  the  fifth-grade  teachers,  and  gradually  extend- 
ing the  work  to  the  upper  grades.  The  work  had  grown 


EXAMPLES   IN   RURAL   EDUCATION        353 

to  such  importance  by  1911  that  the  board  authorized 
each  special  supervisor  to  select  an  assistant,  of  her 
own  choosing,  to  help  in  the  work  of  grade  supervision. 
The  special  supervisors  were  also  given  the  help  of  a 
stenographer. 

In  1910  the  board  authorized  the  superintendent  to 
hold  an  all-day  meeting,  five  times  a  year,  of  all  teach- 
ers teaching  in  the  one-room  rural  schools;  and,  in 
1911,  meetings  for  all  teachers  in  the  two-room  rural 
schools  were  also  authorized.  These  meetings  were 
helpful  in  evolving  plans,  and  led  naturally,  in  1912,  to 
the  appointment,  by  the  county  board,  of  a  special 
supervisor  of  rural  schools  for  the  county.  The  man 
selected  had  been  a  rural  teacher  in  the  county,  had 
risen  to  the  principalship  of  one  of  the  larger  schools, 
and  then  had  gone  to  a  teachers'  college  and  had  pre- 
pared himself  well  for  the  work  to  be  done.  Beginning 
with  September,  1912,  the  teachers  of  the  county  were 
organized  into  thirteen  supervisory  groups,  of  not  over 
thirty-five  teachers  to  a  group,  with  eleven  of  the 
thirteen  groups  in  charge  of  a  grade  supervisor  or  as- 
sistant, who  visits  and  aids  the  teachers  of  that  group. 
The  other  two  groups  were  placed  in  charge  of  assist- 
ant superintendents.  The  county  superintendent  over- 
sees and  directs  the  work  of  all,  and  visits  each  teacher 
once  each  year.  The  development  attained  by  1912  has 
since  been  retained  and  expanded  in  details,  though  the 
main  features  of  the  present  organization  are  the  same 
as  developed  by  1913. 


S54  RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION 

The  results  have  been  such  as  to  give  the  people  of 
Baltimore  County,  Maryland,  one  of  the  best  organ- 
ized rural-school  systems  to  be  found  in  the  United 
States.  Aside  from  the  slow  but  gradual  education 
of  the  people  of  the  county  to  appreciate  the  need 
for  better  supervision  and  to  demand  that  more  money 
be  spent  on  the  schools,  the  excellent  results  which 
have  been  attained  there  have  been  due  largely  to  five 
things ;  — 

1.  The  county  board  of  education  has  been  a  con- 
tinuing body  of  citizens,  only  one  third  going  out 
of  office  at  one  time,  and  has  thus  been  able  to 
plan  and  to  execute  a  continuing  educational  poUcy. 

2.  The  county  board  was  free  to  go  anywhere  it 
wished  to  secure  the  kind  of  man  it  desired  for  county 
superintendent,  to  appoint  him,  and  to  fix  his  salary. 

8.  The  county  board  has  been  free  to  retain  his 
services  continuously,  without  the  interference  of 
party  politics  or  the  chances  of  a  biennial  political 
election.  Efficiency,  not  politics,  has  been  the  basis  of 
his  retention  in  office. 

4.  The  county  board  has  also  been  free  to  appoint 
assistant  superintendents,  special  supervisors,  assist- 
ant supervisors,  stenographers,  and  clerks,  as  they 
deemed  necessary,  and  to  fix  their  salaries,  and  without 
having  first  to  ask  the  county  board  of  supervisors  or 
the  legislature  for  permission  to  do  so.  They  have  been 
free,  as  such  boards  ought  to  be,  to  make  progress  as 
fast  as  they  thought  desirable,  instead  of  being  tied, 
hand  and  foot,  by  uniform  laws. 


EXAMPLES  IN  RURAL  EDUCATION       355 

5.  The  comity  board  has  also  been  able  to  consoli- 
date schools  and  transport  the  pupils;  to  improve 
buildings  and  sanitary  conditions;  to  provide  a  uni- 
formly long  term;  to  increase  and  standardize  the 
salaries  of  the  teachers  throughout  the  county;  to 
enforce  the  employment  of  good  teachers  for  all 
schools;  and  to  add  new  schools  and  new  forms  of 
instruction,  where  and  as  seemed  desirable;  —  and  all 
because  of  its  control  of  the  schools  of  the  county  as  a 
unit.  Their  work  has  been  exactly  analogous  to  that  of 
a  city  board  of  education  for  a  city. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

On  the  following  pages  is  given  a  small  selected  list  of 
references  on  the  rural  problem.  The  list  contains  only  the 
more  easily  available  of  the  numerous  recent  publications 
bearing  on  the  general  subject.  No  attempt  has  been  made 
to  make  it  a  comprehensive  list,  nor  would  such  serve  any 
useful  purpose.  Instead  is  submitted  a  short  list,  contain- 
ing a  few  of  the  more  important  books,  pamphlets,  and  mag- 
azine articles  which  have  appeared  within  recent  years. 

So  important  has  the  problem  become  that  within  recent 
years  most  of  our  states  have  issued  special  bulletins  on  one 
or  more  phases  of  the  rural -life  or  rural-school  problem,  and 
most  of  these  can  be  obtained  by  teachers  for  the  asking. 
The  following  are  possible  sources  of  supply : 

1.  The  State  Department  of  Education 

2.  The  State  University 

3.  The  State  Agricultural  College 

4.  The  State  Teachers  College,  or  Normal  Schools 

5.  The  County  Farm  Advisor 

6.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture 

7.  The  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 

The  Annual  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  the  State  Department  of  Agriculture, 
often  contain  useful  material.  The  volumes  on  Population 
and  on  Agriculture,  giving  the  results  of  the  1920  Census, 
as  well  as  the  special  volume  issued  for  each  state,  will  also 
prove  useful.  In  addition  the  two  following  monthly  mag- 
azines contain  many  articles  of  value:  — 

World's  Work.   A  Monthly  Illustrated  Magazine.   Double- 
day,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  L.I. 

This  magazine  contains  many  articles  relating  to  farm  life 
and  rural  education,  often  of  particular  value^  to  those  who  are 
interested  in  rural  life  and  education. 


858  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Rural  Manhood.  A  Monthly  Illustrated  Magazine.  Inter- 
national Committee,  Y.M.C.A.,  New  York. 

Devoted  to  the  country  work  of  th«  Y.M.C.A.  Contains 
much  that  is  valuable  relating  to  rural  life. 

PART  I.  THE  RURAL-LIFE  PROBLEM 

1.  The  Rural  Evolution 

Boyle,  Jas.  E.  Rural  Problems  in  the  United  States.  142  pp. 
MeCIurg,  Chicago,  1921. 

A  good  brief  statement  of  the  fundamental  rural-life  problems. 

BuTTERFiELD,  K.  L.  Chapters  in  Rural  Progress.  251  pp. 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  1908. 

A  good  analysis  of  rural  social  progress. 

Carver,  T.  N.  The  Principles  of  Rural  Economics.  886  pp. 
Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston,  1912. 

Deals  in  an  interesting  manner  with  the  reasons  for  the  city- 
ward trend  and  the  possibilities  of  the  farm  and  country  of  the 
future,  from  the  viewpoint  of  an  economist. 

Childs,  Roba  P.  "Making  Good  Farmers  out  of  Poor  Ones"; 
In  Review  of  Reviews,  November,  1910.  6  pp. 

An  account  of  Dr.  Knapp's  demonstration  work  among 
Southern  Farmers.  An  interesting  popular  account. 

HiBBARD,  B.  H.  *' Tenancy  in  the  North  Central  States"; 
in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  August,  1911.  20  pp. 

A  good  study  of  tenancy  in  these  states  up  to  1910.  Gives  the 
high  price  of  land  and  the  one-crop  system  as  the  chief  factors 
in  producing  tenancy. 

Ross,  J.  B.  "The  Agrarian  Revolution  in  the  Middle  West " ; 
in  North  American  Review,  vol.  190,  pp.  377-91  (September, 
1909). 

Sketches  the  great  social  changes  taking  place  in  the  upper 
Mississippi  Valley,  and  the  effect  of  these  changes  on  the  in- 
stitutions of  rural  society  there. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  359 

Sims,  N.  L.   The  Rural  Community,  916  pp.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons,  New  York,  1920. 

A  very  important  and  valuable  collection  of  readings  relating 
to  the  rural-life  problem  in  its  different  phases.  Quite  valuable  as 
a  library  supplemental  reference,  as  it  reproduces  many  impor- 
tant articles  not  usually  found  in  small  libraries. 

Wilson,  W.  H.    The  Evolution  of  the  Country  Community. 
221  pp.  The  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston,  1912. 

Treats  of  rural  social  development,  the  pioneer,  the  land- 
exploiter,  the  husbandman,  the  religious  life  of  each  period, 
rural  morality,  recreation,  and  the  graded  school,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  church. 

''  2.  The  Rural  Church 

AsHENHURST,  J.  O.  The  Day  of  the  Country  Ckurck.  208  pp. 
Funk  &  Wagnalls,  New  York,  1910. 
Contains  an  excellent  chapter  on  leadership. 

Bemies,  C.  O.   The  Church  in  the  Country  Tovm.  American 
Baptist  Publishing  Company,  Chicago,  1912. 
The  peculiar  problems  of  the  church  in  the  small  town. 

Bricker,  G.  a.,  and  Others.    Solving  the  Country  Church 
Problem.  Jennings  &  Graham,  Cincinnati,  1913. 
A  symposium  on  the  question. 

BuTTERFiELD,  K.  L.  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Prob^ 
.  lem.  153  pp.  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1911. 

The  task  of  the  church  and  its  relation  to  the  rival  problem 
is  outlined. 

Earp,  E.  L.   The  Rural  Church  Movement.  Methodist  Book 
Concern,  New  York,  1914. 

FiSKE,  G.  W.    The  Challenge  of  the  Country.  274  pp.   The 
Y.M.C.A.,  Association  Press,  New  York,  1912. 

A  book  on  the  rural  problem,  with  special  reference  to  the 
country  church.  Written  at  the  request  of  the  International 
Committee  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  associations. 


360  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Gill,  C.  O.,  and  Pinchot,  G.  Six  Thousand  Country 
Churches.   The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1919. 

McNuTT,  M,  B.  "Ten  Years  in  a  Country  Church";  in 
World's  Work,  December,  1910.  6  pp. 

A  very  interesting  account  of  ten  years  of  effort  in  a  country 
parish  in  Illinois,  and  the  results  achieved.  Also  reproduced  in 
Sims,  cited  above. 

Nesmith,  G.  T.  "The  Problem  of  the  Rural  Community 
with  special  reference  to  the  Rural  Church";  in  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  May,  1903.  26  pp. 

The  condition  of  the  rural  church;  community  means  for 
improvement. 

Presbyterian  Church,  Board  of  Home  Missions.  Ohio 
Rural  Life  Survey.  Presbyterian  Church  Publishing  Com- 
pany, New  York,  1914. 

1.  Church  Growth  and  Decline  in  Ohio.  32  pp. 

2.  Country  Churches  of  Distinction.  48  pp. 

3.  Northwestern  Ohio.  70  pp. 

4.  Southeastern  Ohio.  64  pp. 

5.  Southwestern  Ohio.  93  pp.' 

A  survey  of  rural-church  conditions  in  Ohio  made  by  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  Country  Life  Division,  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church. 

Symposium.  "The  Church  and  the  Rural  Community";  in 
American  Journal  of  Sociology,  March,  1911. 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country.  283  pp. 
Missionary  Education  Movement  of  the  United  States, 
New  York,  1912. 

The  place  of  the  rural  church  in  modern  farming  communities 
and  what  changes  must  be  effected  if  the  church  is  to  continue  as 
a  rural  leader.  The  author  is  Secretary  of  Presbyterian  missions. 

Wilson,  W.  H.  "The  Church  and  the  Rural  Community"; 
in  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  March,  1911.  34  pp., 
including  discussion. 

A  paper  along  much  the  same  lines  as  the  above. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  361 

3.  Rural  Life  in  general 

Anderson,  W.  L.  The  Conntry  Town.  307  pp.  The  Baker  & 
Taylor  Co.,  New  York,  1906. 

Contains  good  chapters  on  rural-life  conditions  and  needs, 
rural  degeneration  and  depletion,  rural  resources,  and  the  rural 
church. 

Bailey,  L.  H.  The  Country-Life  Movement.  220  pp.  The 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1911. 

A  consideration  of  the  recent  country-life  movement. 

Bailey,  L.  H.  The  Training  of  Farmers.  263  pp.  The 
Century  Company,  New  York,  1909. 

A  discussion  of  the  need  and  the  means  of  training  farmers 
for  more  successful  agriculture  and  better  living. 

Bailey,  L.  H.  The  State  and  the  Farmer.  177  pp.  Macmil- 
lan Company,  New  York,  1917. 

A  discussion  of  possible  relationships  and  help  given. 

Country  Life  Commission.  Report.  65  pp.  Government 
Printing  Office,  1909.  Reprinted  by  Sturgis  &  Walton, 
New  York,  1911. 

The  report  of  President  Roosevelt's  Commission,  outlining  the 
problem  and  suggesting  remedies.  A  very  important  document. 

Crow,  Martha  F.  The  American  Country  Girl.  367  pp. 
F.  A.  Stokes  Company,  New  York,  1915. 

Curtis,  H.  S.  Play  and  Recreation  in  the  Open  Country. 
265  pp.    Gism  &  Co.,  Boston,  1914. 

Gillette,  J.  M.  Constructive  Rural  Sociology.  408  pp. 
Sturgis  &  Walton,  New  York,  1916. 

A  text-book  treatment  of  the  problems  surrounding  rural 
life. 

Grayson,  D.  Adventures  in  Contentment.  Doubleday,  Page 
&  Co.,  Garden  City,  L.I.,  1907. 

Charming  sketches  of  the  delights  of  country  life. 


362  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Haggakd,  H.  R.  Rural  Denmark  and  its  Lessons.  335  pp. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  New  York,  1911. 

Describes  the  great  rural  transformation  effected  in  Denmark 
by  agricultural  education  and  cooperation  among  the  farmers. 

Hanifan,  L.  J.  The  Commtinity  Center.  214  pp.  Silver,  Bur- 
dette  &  Co.,  Boston,  1920. 

Describes  what  to  do  and  how  to  organize. 

Hart,  J.  K.  Educational  Resources  of  Village  and  Rural 
Communities.  277  pp.  The  Macmillan  Company,  New 
York,  1913. 

A  collection  of  16  essays,  by  different  authors,  on  different 
phases  of  the  rural-life  problem. 

Hill,  J.  J.  "What  we  must  do  to  be  fed";  in  World's  Work, 
November,  1909.  38  pp.,  illustrated.  Reprinted  as  chap- 
ter I  in  his  Highways  oj  Progress,  1910. 

Emphasizes  the  importance  of  scientific  agriculture. 

Jackson,  H.  E.  A  Community  Center.  52  pp.  Bulletin  11, 
1918,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington. 
What  a  community  center  is,  and  how  to  organize  it. 

McCoRMiCK,  W.  The  Boy  and  His  Clubs.  F.  H.  Revel, 
Chicago,  1912. 

McKeever,  W.  a.  Farm  Boys  and  Girls.  326  pp.  The  Mac- 
millan Company,  New  York,  1912. 

A  good  book  on  rural  home  life,  and  the  life  interests  of  young 
people. 

Nason,  W.  C.  Rural  Community  Buildings  in  the  United 
States.  36  pp.,  illustrated.  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  Washington,  1919.  Farmers'  Bulletin  825. 

Nason,  W.  C.  Plans  of  Rural  Community  Buildings.  40  pp., 
illustrated.  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 
Washington,  1921.  Farmers'  Bulletin  1173. 

The  above  two  describe,  picture,  and  give  floor-plans  for  a 
number  of  community-center  buildings  in  different  parts  of  the 
United  States. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  868 

Phelan,  John.  Readings  in  Rural  Sociology.  632  pp.    The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1920. 
A  cyclopedia  on  rural  welfare.    Useful  to  teachers. 

Plunkett,  Sir  H.     The  Rural-Life  Problem  of  the  United 
States.  174pp.  TheMacmillaaCompany,New York,  1910. 

Written  by  an  authority  on  Irish  and  American  agriculture. 
Deals  largely  with  the  life  of  the  farmer,  and  the  great  need  for 
business  cooperation. 

Robertson,  J.  W.  Conservation  of  Life  in  Rural  Districts. 
46  pp.  The  Y.M.C.A.,  Association  Press,  New  York,  1911. 

Sims,  N.  L.  A  Hoosier  Village.  181  pp.  Longmans,  Green  & 
Co.,  1912. 

A  study  of  a  town  of  2500  people,  with  reference  to  the  causes 
for  its  degeneration.  In  conclusion,  says  that  not  a  single  im- 
provement in  the  village  life  has  come  from  within. 

Sims,  N.  L.  The  Rural  Community.  916  pp.  Charles  Serib- 
ner's  Sons,  New  York,  1920. 

An  important  and  valuable  collection  of  readings  relating  to 
the  different  phases  of  the  rural-life  problem.  Should  be  con- 
sulted and  referred  to  by  teachers  of  the  subject. 

Symposium.  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Sciences.  Philadelphia.  Issue  for  March,  1912, 
a  special  number  on  the  rural  problem,  243  pp. 

A  very  important  issue.  Contains  i28  valuable  articles  by  well- 
known  authorities,  and  dealing  with  almost  every  phase  of  the 
rural-life  problem. 

Taylor,  H.  C.    Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Agricultural 
Economics.  327  pp.  The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York, 
1915. 
A  treatise  on  the  economic  aspect  of  the  rural-life  problem. 

VoGT,  P.  L.  Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology.  443  pp.  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1917. 

An  introductory  textbook  on  the  subject. 

Ward,  E.  J.  The  Social  Center.  359  pp.  D.  App'eton  &  Co., 
New  York,  1913. 

Describes  the  work  to  be  done. 


364,  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Waugh,  F.  a.  Rural  Improvement.  Orange-Judd  Co.,  New 
York,  1914. 

Wiley,  H.  W.  The  Lure  of  the  Land:  Farming  after  Fifty. 
Century  Company,  New  York,  1915. 

4..  Rural  Social  Surveys 

Branson,  E.  C.  The  Georgia  Club.  41  pp.  Bulletin  No.  23, 
1913,  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education. 

Describes  the  work  done  by  the  students  at  the  state  normal 
school  at  Athens,  Ga.,  in  the  study  of  rural  sociology. 

Felton,  R.  a.     a  Rural  Survey  of County.   38  pp., 

97  forms,  with  bibliographies.    Presbyterian  Church  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  New  York,  1915. 

An  outline  form,  prepared  for  general  use  by  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  County  Church  Work,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States. 

Galpin,  C.  J.  Method  of  Making  a  Social  Survey  of  a  Rural 
Community,  Circ.  Inf.  No.  29,  University  Wisconsin 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  11  pp.,  illustrated, 
1912. 

A  very  good  short  outline,  with  maps,  showing  surveys.  Dis- 
tributed free. 

Morse,  H.  N.,  Eastman,  E.  F.,  and  Monahan,  A.  C.  An 
Educational  Survey  of  a  Suburban  and  Rural  County.  68 
pp.,  illustrated. 

Bulletin  No.  32,  1913,  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion. A  social  and  educational  survey  of  Montgomery  County, 
Md. 

Sharpleigh,  F.  E.    Principles  and  Methods  of  Rural  Sur- 
veys.   The  Y.M.C.A.,  Association  Press,  New  York, 
1913. 
A  detailed  description  of  how  to  go  to  work,  and  what  to  do. 
Taft,  Anna  B.    Community  Study  for  Rural  Districts. 
137  pp.    Missionary  Educational   Movement  for  the 
United  States,  New  York,  1912. 
Another  outline,  with  directions  for  such  studies,  and  charts. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  S65 

Wells,  G.  F.    A  Social  Survey  for  Rural  Communities. 
23  pp.    Published  by  the  author,  150  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York,  1912. 
A  syllabus  outline  of  things  to  study. 


PART  II.  TIIE  RURAL-SCHOOL  PROBLEM 

i.  Needs  in  Rural  Education 

Betts,  G.  H.  New  Ideals  in  Rural  Schools.  128  pp.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1913. 

A  short  treatise  on  the  school,  its  social  relationships,  the 
curriculum,  and  the  teacher. 

Carney,  Mabel.   Country  Life  and  the  Country  School.  405 
pp.  Row,  Peterson  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1913. 

A  very  practical  treatise  on  the  rurcl-school  problem. 

CuBBERLEY,  E.  P.   The  Improvement  of  Rural  Schools.  76  pp. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1912. 

Treats  the  problem  under  the  headings:   The  Problem;  More 
Money;  Better  Organization;  Better  Supervision. 

Davis,  E.  E.    The  Twentieth-Century  Rural  School.   242  pp. 
Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  Indianapolis,  1920. 

Describes  the  new  needs  of  the  school,  and  the  type  of  teacher 
needed  for  real  rural  leadership.  An  important  volume. 

Oresslar,  F.  B.  Rural  Schoolhouses.  Bulletin  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education. 

Pictures  and  describes  many  good  buildings. 

Egm3LE8ton,  J.  D.,  AND  Bruere,  R.  W.    The  Work  of  the 
Rural  School.    283  pp.  Harper  &  Bros.,  New  York,  1913. 

Considers  the  rural  school  as  a  factor  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
rural  community. 

FoQHT,  H.  W.    The  American  Rural  School.    361  pp.    The 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1910. 

A  good  treatise  on  the  rural-school  problem,  but  chiefly  along 
the  lines  of  organization  and  the  curriculum. 


366  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Kern,  O.  J.  Among  Country  Schools.  366  pp.  Ginn  &  Co., 
Boston,  1906. 

The  first  of  the  books  on  the  rural  school,  and  still  quite  useful. 
Describes  many  experiments.   Well  illustrated. 

MoNAHAN,  A.  C.  Status  of  Rural  Education  in  the  United 
States.  73  pp.  Bulletin  No.  8,  1913,  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education. 

An  excellent  presentation  of  present  conditions. 

Richmond,  K.  C.  Rural  School  Playgrounds  and  Equipment. 
12  pp.  Teachers'  Leaflet,  No  11,  October,  1920;  Unitad 
States  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington. 
Describes  briefly  what  b  needed. 

RoBBiNS,  C.  L.  The  School  as  a  Social  Institution.  470  pp. 
AUyn  &  Bacon,  Boston,  1918. 

An  introduction  to  the  study  of  social  education. 

Seerley,  Homer.  The  Country  School.  218  pp.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1913. 

A  very  general  work,  dealing  very  briefly  with  almost  every 
phase  of  rural-school  work. 

Symposium.  The  Rural  School  as  a  Community  Center.  Tenth 
Yearbook,  Part  ii,  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study 
of  Education.  75  pp.  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1911. 

Contains  a  series  of  articles,  by  different  authors,  on  rural- 
school  extension,  cooperation,  libraries,  commimity  needs,  etc. 

I  2.  Organization  and  Supervision  of  Rural  Schools 

(Nearly  all  of  the  books  listed  above,  under  1,  treat  of  this  topic 
also.  In  addition  the  following  are  worthy  of  special  note.) 

Arp,  J.  B.  Rural  Education  and  the  Consolidated  School.  212 
pp.  World  Book  Company,  Yonkers,  N.Y.,  1918. 

A  good  treatise  on  the  rural  educational  problem  in  general, 
with  some  reference  to  consolidation  and  transportation. 

Betts,  G.  H.,and  Hall,  O.  E.  Better  Rural  Schools.  512 
pp.   Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis,  1914. 

A  large  general  treatise,  emphasiziug  consolidation. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  SG7 

BuRNHAM,  E.  Two  Types  of  Rural  Scliools.  129  pp.  Teachers 
College  Publications  No.  51.  New  York,  1912. 

A  comparative  survey  of  two  rural-school  areas  in  Ohio  and 
Michigan. 

Challman,  S.  a.  The  Rural  School  Plant.  256  pp.  Bruce 
Publishing  Company,  Milwaukee,  1917. 

Describes  and  illustrates  rural-school  buildings,  and  sets  stand- 
ards. 

Firestone  Bulletin.  Consolidated  Rural  Schools  and  ike 
Motor  Truck.  52  pp.,  illustrated.  Firestone  Tire  and  Rub- 
ber Co.,  Akron,  Ohio.  Bulletin  No.  6,  1920. 

An  excellent  monograph  on  transportation,  giving  cost  data 
seldom  presented. 

Hayes,  A.  W.  Rural  Community  Organization.  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1922. 

A  study  of  the  type  of  local  educational  unit  best  adapted  to 
a  comprehensive  community  organization. 

BLays,  W.  M.  Education  for  Country  Life.  Circular  84, 
OflSce  of  Experimental  Stations,  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture. 

Points  out  the  large  possibilities  of  the  consolidated  school  as  a 
community  center. 

Knorr,  G.  W.  Consolidated  Rural  Schools,  and  the  Organ- 
ization of  a  County  System.  99  pp.  Bulletin  232,  Office  of 
Experiment  Stations,  United  States  Department  of  Ag- 
riculture, Washington,  D.C.,  1910. 

An  excellent  bulletin  on  consolidation  and  the  county  unit. 
The  best  study  of  the  subject  so  far  published.  Contains  much 
valuable  data  as  to  costs,  and  many  illustrations. 

Knorr,  G.  W.  Study  of  Fifteen  Consolidated  Schools.  South- 
ern Education  Board,  Washington,  D.C. 
Contains  data  as  to  organization,  costs,  and  eflBciency. 

MoNAHAN,  A.  C.   Consolidation  of  Rural  Schools  and  Trans- 
portation of  Pupils  at  Public  Expense.    108  pp.   Bulletin 
30,  1914,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education. 
An  excellent  statement  of  work  being  done,  and  the  problems. 


368  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Rapeer,  L.  W.,  and  Others.  The  Consolidated  Rural  School. 
54:5  pp.   Charles  Scribuer's  Sons,  New  York,  1920. 

A  series  of  tweirty-two  articles  on  different  phases  of  the  move- 
ment for  the  consolidation  of  schools,  the  transportation  of  pupils 
and  the  curriculum  of  the  consolidated  school.  Our  best  and  most 
complete  treatment  of  the  subject.  Contains  good  bibliographies 
on  rural-life  problems. 

Showalter,  N.  D.  a  Handbook  for  Rural  School  Officers.  213 
pp.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1920. 

A  general  treatment  of  all  the  phases  of  rural-school  administra- 
tion coming  within  the  province  of  a  school  trustee  or  school 
director.  A  good  book  on  rural-school  administration. 

Special  State  Bulletins.  In  a  number  of  states  special 
bulletins  have  been  issued  by  the  State  Department  of 
Education,  the  State  Agricultural  College,  the  State  Uni- 
versity, or  otherwise.  These  are  often  very  valuable. 
Among  those  issued  in  1920-21  the  following  are  illus- 
trative. 

1.  Calhoun,  J.  T.  Consolidated  Schools.  38  pp.  State 
Department  of  Education,  Mississippi,  Bulletin  17,  1920. 

2.  HiNEs,  L.  H.  The  School  as  the  Center  of  the  Com- 
munity Life.  31pp.  The  Story  of  a  School.  Department  of 
Public  Instruction,  Indiana,  1920. 

3.  Knight,  E.  W.  Tlie  Consolidation  of  Rural  Schools.  26 
pp.  University  of  North  Carolina  Extension  Leaflet, 
1920. 

4.  ScHRiBER,  J.  H.  Transportation  of  School  Children  in 
Colorado.  54  pp.   State  Agricultural  College,  1920. 

.  5.  Sargent,  C.  G.  Consolidated  Schools  of  the  Mountains, 
Valleys,  arid  Plains  of  Colorado.  60  pp.  Colorado  Agri- 
cultural College  Bulletin,  June,  1921. 

Symposium.  Supervision  of  Rural  Schools.  Twelfth  Year- 
book, Part  II,  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of 
Education,  114  pp.  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1913, 

A  series  of  contributed  articles,  dealing  with  different  phases 
of  the  problem  of  supervision  of  rural  schools.  Also  contains  a 
good  bibliography  on  school  supervision. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  869 

S.  The  Curriculum 

(See   also   Arps,  Belts,  Kern,  Foght,  Rapeer,  Showalter,  and 
under  1,  al)ove.) 

Alderman,  L.  R.    School  Credit  for  Home  Work.    181  pp. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1915. 
Describes  types,  and  how  to  administer  the  credits. 

Brakdon,  M.  E.  The  Project  Method  in  Education.  282  pp. 
Badger,  Boston,  1919. 
A  general  consideration  of  project  teaching. 

Brown,  H.  A.  The  Readjustment  of  a  Rural  High  School  to  the 
Needs  of  the  Community,  31  pp.,  illustrated.  Bulletin 
No.  20,  1912,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  Wash- 
ington, D.C. 

Describes  how  Colebrook  Academy,  New  Hampshire,  was  re- 
directed. 

Crocherton,  B.  H.  "A  Very  Real  Country  School";  in 
World's  Work,  January,  1912.   10  pp.,  illustrated. 

Describes  the  establishment  and  extension  work  of  this  same 
Baltimore  County  high  school. 

Crosby,  D.  J.,  a7id  Crocherton,  B.  H.  Community  Work  in 
the  Rural  High  School.  12  pp.  In  Yearbook,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  1910.  Also  reprinted  separately 
for  free  distribution. 

Describes  the  community  work  done  in  the  agricultural  high 
school  of  Baltimore  County,  Maryland. 

Davenport,  E.  Education  for  Efficiency.  184  pp.  D.  C. 
Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  1909. 

A  discussion  of  what  constitutes  efficient  education,  and  the 
place  of  agriculture  in  an  educational  system, 

Davis,  B.  M.   Agricultural  Education  in  the  Public  Schools. 
163  pp.   University  of  Chicago  Press,  1912. 
Outlines  work  to  be  done. 

FoGHT,  H.  W.   The  Danish  Folk  High  Schools.  93  pp.,  illus- 
trated. Bulletin  22, 1914,  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion. 
An  excellent  presentation  of  the  work  of  these  agricultural 


370  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

high  schools  and  their  adaptability  to  conditions  in  the  United 
States. 

Howe,  F.  W.  Boys'  and  GirW  Agricultural  Clubs.  23  pp., 
illustrated.  Farmers'  Bulletin,  No.  385,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  1910.  i^ 

Describes  the  work,  and  gives  a  list  of  publications  of  the  De- 
partment relating  to  the  work. 

Hummel,  W.  B.  and  B.  R.  Materials  and  Methods  in  Agricul- 
tural Education.  The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York, 
1913. 

A  good  practical  working  guide  for  the  teacher. 

Jewell,  J.  R.  Agricultural  Education,  Including  Nature  Study 
and  School  Gardens.  140  pp.  Bulletin  No.  2,  1907,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education. 

A  careful  consideration  of  the  curriculum. 

Johnson,  A.  A.  County  Schools  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic 
Economy  in  Wisconsin,  24  pp.  Bulletin  No.  242,  OflSce 
of  Experimental  Stations,  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  1911. 

Describes  the  kind  of  work  done  in  a  number  of  these  schools. 

Johnson,  C.  Old-Time  Schools  and  School  Books.  381  pp., 
illustrated.  The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1904. 

A  good  description  of  the  old-time  district  school,  and  its 
work. 

Leake,  A.  H.  Means  and  Methods  of  Agricultural  Education. 
273  pp.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1915. 

N.  E.  A.  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Courses  of  Study  in 
Agriculture.  In  Report  of  Proceedings,  N.  E.  A.,  1912, 
pp.  1391-1413. 

A  very  useful  report,  outlining  many  practical  courses  for  dif- 
ferent types  of  schools. 

Nolan,  A.  W.  The  Teaching  of  Agriculture.  277  pp.  Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1918. 

Two  recent  books  dealing  with  plans  and  materials  for  agricul- 
tural instruction. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  371 

lloBiNSON,  C.  H.  and  Jenks,  F.  B.  Agricultural  Instruction 
in  High  Schools.  80  pp.  Bulletin  No.  6, 1913,  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education. 

Discusses  types  of  schools,  salaries  of  teachers,  and  kinds  of 
instruction  provided. 

ScuDDER,  M.  T.  Field  Day  and  Play  Picnics  for  Country 
Children.  Bulletin,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  New 
York.  10c. 
Describes  how  to  organize  and  conduct  such. 

Stimson,  R.  W.  Vocational  Agricultural  Education  by 
Projects. 

Stockton,  J.  LeRoy.  Project  Work  in  Education.  Houghtoi 
Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1920. 

A  general  discussion  of  the  problems  and  plans  involved  in  proj- 
ect work. 

Woofter,  T.  J.  Teaching  in  Rural  Schools.  327  pp.  Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1917. 

A  very  helpful  book,  dealing  with  both  the  organization  of  the 
school  and  the  instruction  in  the  different  subjects. 


.4.  The  Teacher 

Bailey,  L.  H.  On  the  Training  of  Persons  to  teach  Agriculture 
in  the  Public  Schools.  53  pp.  Bulletin  No.  1, 1908,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education. 

Discusses  the  nature  of  the  problem,  and  the  means  of  train- 
ing teachers  for  rural  service.  "^ 

CuLTER,  H.  M.  and  Stone,  J.  M.  The  Rural  School,  its 
Method  and  Management.  376  pp.  Silver  Burdette  &  Co., 
Boston,  1913. 

A  book  on  management  and  methods. 

Field,  Jessie.  The  Com  Lady.  107  pp.  A.  Flanagan  Com- 
pany, Chicago,  1911. 

A  series  of  letters  from  a  country  teacher  to  her  father,  de- 
scribing her  work  in  transforming  a  rural  school.  Should  be  read 


372  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

by  every  rural  teacher.    The  appendix  contains  some  very  good 
farm-arithmetic  problems. 

FoGHT..  H.  W.  Rural  Teacher  Preparation  in  the  County 
Training  Schools.  71  pp.  Bulletin  No.  31,  1917,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education. 

Describes  work  and  conditions  and  output. 

FoGHT,  H.  W.  The  Rural  Teacher  and  His  Work.  The  Mac- 
millan  Company,  New  York,  1918. 

MoNAHAN,  A.  C,  and  Wright,  R.  H.  Training  Courses  for 
Rural  Teachers.  61pp.  Bulletin  No.  2, 1913,  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education. 

Describes  what  is  being  done  in  the  difiFerent  states  in  the  matter 
of  preparing  teachers  for  the  rural  schools. 

MuTCHLER,  F.,  and  Craig,  W.  J.  A  Course  of  Study  for  the 
Preparation  of  Rural-School  Teachers.   23  pp.   Bulletin  No. 
1,  1912,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education. 
Outlines  a  course  of  study  for  rural  teachers. 

PiTTMAN  M.  S.  Successful  Teaching  in  Rural  Schools.  The 
American  Book  Company,  New  York,  1922. 

A  series  of  practical  illustrations  of  successful  rural  instruction. 

Quick,  Herbert,  The  Rroivn  Mouse.  310  pp.  Bobbs-Mer- 
rill  Co.,  Indianapolis,  1915. 
A  very  interesting  rural-life  story. 

WiLKBpsoN,  W.  A.  Rural  School  Management.  420  pp. 
Silver  Burdette  &  Co.,  Boston,  1917. 

Describes  the  daily  work  of  the  teacher  in  the  usual  rural  school. 

WooFTER,  T.  J.  Teaching  in  Rural  Schools.  327  pp.  Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1917. 

Presents  both  the  organization  of  the  school  and  methods  of 
instruction  in  the  different  school  subjects. 

Wray,  Angelina.  Jean  Mitchell's  School.  244+32  pp. 
Public  School  Publishing  Co.,  Bloomington,  Illinois,  1911. 

A  charming  story  of  a  country  teacher's  experience,  and  of 
a  kind  which  young  teachers  could  read  with  profit. 


INDEX 


Administration  and  organiza- 
tion of  schools,  178-93. 

Agricultural  clubs,  boys  and 
girls,  144-46;  Clinton  County, 
Iowa,  156-59. 

Agricultural  colleges,  38. 

Agricultural  development,  four 
periods  of :  —  I.  Up  to  1830, 
7-13;  II.  1830-60,  14-18;  III. 
1860-90,  18-28;  IV.  1890  on, 
29-61. 

Agricultural  expansion,  great 
American,  18-21,  22-24,  41- 
43. 

Agriculture:  —  Instruction  in 
rural  schools,  268-71,  296;  na- 
tional aid  for,  37;  new,  36-37; 
future  demands  on,  44;  re- 
organization and  commercial- 
izing of,  36-51;  U.S.  Dept.  of, 
38,39,146,155-58. 

Arithmetic,  redirection  of  in- 
struction in,  260-61. 

Automobiles  on  farms,  64. 

Away-from-farm-influence  in  ed- 
ucation, 260-61. 

Back-to-land  movement,  169. 

Baltimore  Co.,  Md.,  County 
unit  in,  321-23,  339-47. 

Barley,  new  seed,  39. 

Bathroom  conveniences,  34. 

Bibliography  on  rural  problems, 
349-60. 

"  Boarding-around  "  arrange- 
ments, 88. 

Boy-Scouts,  rural,  144. 

Boys'  Clubs,  144-46. 

Buildings,  school,  207-16;  con- 
solidated school  interiors,  253, 
328-38;  fundamental  needs  in, 
212-16;  typical  interiors,  207- 
12;  special  rooms,  215. 


Camp-Fire  Girls,  rural,  144. 

Church :  —  A  rural,  reorganized, 
132-37;  a  village,  reorganized, 
137-39;  as  a  community  cen- 
ter, 121-23;  early  social  as- 
pect of,  76-78;  large  early  in- 
fluence, 72-74; the  teacher and, 
81-82;  effect  of  changes  on, 
71-81;  social  mission  of,  80. 

Churches:  —  Too  many,  77-78; 
dying  churches,  76-79. 

Cities,  gradual  rise  of,  8,  25. 

City  and  country  schools  com- 
pared, 221. 

City  connections  formed,  65. 

Cityward  migration,  the,  24-26. 

Commerce,  rise  of,  16. 

Commercial  clubs  aiding  farm- 
ers, 155-59. 

Commercial  large-scale  farming, 
45-46. 

Commercial  small-scale  farming, 
46-47. 

Community  centers,  117-26;  pos- 
sible, 118-25;  one  plan  for, 
119;  the  church  as  a,  121-23, 
139,  339-42;  the  library  as  a, 
124;  the  school  as  a,  125. 

Community-center  church,  121- 
23,  139,  339-44. 

Community-center  organizations, 
160,  161. 

Community-center  schools,  251- 
54;  floor-plans  for,  253. 

Community  life,  126,  158. 

Community  rural  service,  126. 

Consolidated  schools:  —  A  one- 
room  school  in  Missouri,  328- 
34;  a  good  example  in  Illinois, 
334-38;  a  community-center 
church  and  consolidated  school 
in  Colorado,  339-44. 

Consolidation    movement,    203 


374 


INDEX 


inaugurating  the  same,  240, 
345. 

Consolidation  of  schools,  230- 
55,  328-38;  advantages  of, 
235-38;  disadvantages  of,  239- 
40;  district  consolidation,  240- 
43;  township  consolidation, 
243-44;  county-unit  plan,  245- 
49,  321-26;  state  reorganiza- 
tion, 255;  in  Colorado,  233-35; 
in  Illinois,  334-38;  in  Indiana, 
231,  242;  in  Iowa,  232;  in  Ohio, 
232-34. 

Cooperative  Agricultural  Exten- 
sion Act,  The,  155. 

Country-life  Commission,  the, 
169. 

Country-life  movement,  mean- 
ing of,  128. 

County  Agricultural  Agents,  156. 

County  board  of  education,  322- 
26,  339-47. 

County  farm  council,  156. 

County  school  superintendent. 
(See  Superintendent;  Superin- 
tendency.) 

County  system,  the,  of  school 
administration,  190-92,  245- 
49,  339-47. 

County  taxation  for  education, 
198-200. 

County  unit  in  evolution,  307. 

Curriculum:  — The  old,  256-66, 
275-76;  need  of  redirecting, 
267-68,  275-78;  new  one 
needed  for  rural  school,  256- 
81,  296;  for  rural  high  school, 
278-80. 

Distribution  of  taxation  for  edu- 
cation, systems  of,  201-02. 

District  school:  —  Origin  of,  83- 
85;  multiplication  of  districts, 
163-65,  181-83,  226-29;  de- 
cline of,  164-66. 

District  system,  86-88,  178-86, 
221-25;  essential  features  of, 
178-86;  objections  to,  184- 
86,226-30,285-87. 


District  taxation,  194-97. 
Domestic  science,  instruction  in, 
271-73,  298,  343. 

Education,  early,  83-89;  changes 
in  after  1870,  89-96;  increas- 
ing cost  of,  99-100;  increasing 
term,  101;  present  inade- 
quacy, 97;  what  constitutes, 
280-81. 

Educational  reorganization  need- 
ed, 172-75,  203,  224. 

Equalizing  effect  of  general  taxa- 
tion, 199-201. 

Erie  Canal,  16. 

Expansion,  agricultural,  18-2L 
22-24. 

Experts,  farm,  155-59. 

Farm  experts,  155-59;  hands, 
26,  60;  labor,  saving  in,  26- 
28;  managers,  46;  tenantry, 
51-61;  values,  23,  30,  43,  67. 

Farmer,  home-builder  type,  22. 

Farmer,  town  and  travel  habit, 
65-66. 

Farmers,  agricultural  courses 
for.  70. 

Farmers'  Institutes,  154-55. 

Farmers'  organizations,  149-59. 

Farmhouses,  newer,  33-35. 

Farming:  —  Commercial,  14; 
conditions  in  fifteen  states, 
30;  population,  30;  subsist- 
ence stage,  10-14. 

Farms,  development  of,  19,  20, 
24;  free,  given  away,  19;  size 
of,  30. 

First  period  in  agricultural  de- 
velopment, 7-13;  characteris- 
tics of  the  period,  7-13. 

Florida,  Duval  County,  consoli- 
dation in,  245. 

Foodstuffs,  recent  values  of,  42. 

Fourth  period  in  agricultural 
development,  29-61;  charac- 
teristics of  the  period,  31; 
changes  involved,  60-61;  ef- 
fect on  school,  94-97. 


mDEX 


375 


Furnaces  in  homes,  34. 

Geography,  instruction  in,  262- 
64. 

Government,  local,  68-71. 

Grading  of  schools,  90. 

Grammar  and  language,  instruc- 
tion in,  261,  262. 

Grange,  the,  124.  149-52,  302. 

Harlem,  consolidated  school, 
324-28. 

Hesperia  Movement,  the,  160. 

High  school,  rural:  —  Redirec- 
tion of,  278-80;  teacher  in, 
300-01. 

History,  instruction  in,  265-66. 

Home  and  school,  18. 

Home-builder  farmer,  22. 

Home  life,  early,  11,  18. 

Home-project  idea,  275a. 

Homes,  early  farm,  11;  need  for 
better,  115-17;  present  farm 
homes,  33-35. 

Hygiene,  instruction  in,  264-65, 
296. 

Idaho,  Ada  County,  reorgan- 
ized, 249-50. 

Immigrants:  —  Early  types, 
15-16;  later  types,  54-59; 
land  ownership  by,  107;  teach- 
ing agriculture  to,  70. 

Indiana,  Delaware  County,  con- 
solidation in,  242. 

Institutes,  farmers",  154-55. 

Institutional  church,  an,  135-37, 
339-42. 

Instruction:  —  In  rural  school, 
256-81;  in  rural  high  school, 
278-80. 

Intellectual  revolution,  the,  74- 
76. 

Intensive  farming,  46. 

Interiors  of  building,  school, 
207-16;  a  model  building,  214; 
a  reorganized  school,  211. 

Inventions :  —  New,  15-16;  labor- 
saving,  26-28. 


Kirksville,    -    Missouri, 

school,  328-34. 
Kitchens,  farm,  116. 


rural 


Language  and  grammar,  in- 
struction in,  261-63. 

Library:  — Rural,  124,  146-49; 
school,  220-21;  library  work, 
297. 

Living:  —  Early,  10-14,  18; 
third-period  characteristics,  22; 
fourth-period  changes,  31-35. 

Local  government  amid  the 
change,  68-71. 

Machinery,  new  farming,  15,  89. 

Magazines  in  the  farm  home,  33, 
64. 

Mail,  rural  delivery,  33. 

Maintenance  of  schools,  types  of, 
193-204.  _        ^ 

Manual  training,  instruction  in, 
273,  298,  343. 

Manufacturing,  rise  of,  16. 

Markets,  early,  9,  11;  new,  14, 
40^1. 

Maryland,  county  unit  of  ad- 
ministration in,  321-23,  339- 
47. 

Migrations,  early  Westward,  9. 

Mississippi  Valley :  —  An  agri- 
cultural center,  30-31;  town 
movement  in,  36;  towns  lack- 
ing in  personality  in,  102. 

Missouri,  Kirksville  consolidated 
school,  328-34. 

Model  rural  school  buildings, 
214,  253,  328-38. 

Morrill  Land-Grant  Bill,  37. 

National  aid  for  agriculture,  37. 

Nature  study,  instruction  in, 
268-71,  296. 

Negro  farmers,  48,  50,  59. 

Neighborhood  clubs,  158-59. 

New  England  influence  on  relig- 
ious life,  71-72. 

New  interest  in  rural  life,  65. 

Newspapers  in  farm  homes,  33,64. 


376 


INDEX 


Nursing,  district,  139. 

Ohio,  consolidation  of  schools 
in,  230-34,  241. 

Ohio,  township  supervision  of 
schools  in,  312. 

Organization  and  administra- 
tion of  schools,  types  of,  178- 
93. 

Outlook,  larger  rural,  114. 

Ownership  of  land,  61,  107. 

Periods  of  agricultural  develop- 
ment. (See  Agricultural  de- 
velopment.) 

Personality,  retention  of,  on 
farms,  112-13. 

Personality,  the  school  and,  113. 

Pioneer  life,  early,  10. 

Plainfield,  Illinois,  reorganized 
rural  church,  132-37. 

Plav,  organized,  instruction  in, 
274. 

Population,  rapid  growth  of  ur- 
ban, 8,  25. 

Population  and  production,  rela- 
tive increases  in,  27. 

Professional  preparation  for 
teaching,  289-99. 

Project-idea,  the  home,  275a. 

Railways,  early,  16-17. 

Reading,  instruction  in,  266-67. 

Redirected  schools:  —  A  rural, 
328-34;  a  consolidated,  334-38. 

Redirecting  the  school,  172,  174. 

Rural  economic  interests,  108. 

Rural  human  interests,  109. 

Rural  library,  124,  146-49 
297. 

Rural  life:  —  Early,  11;  to-day, 
32-35;  great  rural  interests, 
173;  movement,  the  recent, 
169;  needs  to-day,  104,  110, 
297;  educational  deficiency  in, 
105. 

Rural  population,  8,  25,  111;  by 
states,  49;  decreases  in,  50-51. 

Rural  school.    (See  School.) 


Rural  school  progress,  funda- 
mental needs  for,  203-04. 

Riual  social  life,  63-68,  297. 

Rural  social  problem,  106,  297. 

Rural  teacher:  —  Training  of, 
289-99;  high  school  teacher, 
300-01;  possibilities  for  large 
service,  301-04. 

Sargent  School  and  Church, 
Colorado,  339-44. 

School:  — Origin  of,  83-85;  the 
early,  88,  177;  second-period 
school,  86-88;  city-school  in- 
fluence on,  92;  changes  in 
direction  after  1870,  90- 
95;  amid  the  fourth-period 
changes,  94-97, 164-72;  tj'pical 
early  interiors,  84,  86;  costs, 
increasing,  94-101;  district, 
decline  of,  163-67;  library, 
220-21;  sites,  216-18;  super- 
vision (see  Supervision,  Su- 
perintendency);  term,  increas- 
ing, 101. 

School  and  democracy,  163,  320. 

School  and  home,  18. 

School  and  personality,  113. 

School  buildings :  —  types  and 
needs  of,  207-16;  typical  in- 
teriors, 207-12;  fundamental 
needs  of,  212-10;  special 
rooms  in,  215;  consolidated, 
328-44. 

Schoolmaster,  the  early,  88. 

Schools,  rural :  —  Not  of  neces- 
sity poor,  167;  recent  criti- 
cism of,  168;  redirecting  them, 
172-75,  328-38;  fundamental 
needs  of,  for  progress,  203-04; 
present  plight  of,  102,  164-67. 

School  systems  and  evolution, 
178 

Science,  domestic,  instruction 
in,  271-73,  298. 

Science  room  in  schools,  215. 

Second  period  in  agricultural  de- 
velopment,  14-18. 

Second-period  school,  86-88. 


INDEX 


377 


Seed  selection,  39. 

Sites,  school,  216-18. 

Size  of  farms,  30. 

Smith-Lever  Act,  155. 

Social  worli  for  the  church,  122. 

Society,  early  rural,  63-65; 
changes  in,  65-68. 

Specialization,  farm  and  crop, 
15. 

Stock-breeding,  39. 

Subsistence  farming,  10-14. 

Sunday,  early,  social  signifi- 
cance of,  64!. 

Sunday  School,  non-attendance 
at,  77-78. 

Superintendency,  county:  —  In 
evolution,  308;  new  concep- 
tions of  the  office,  309-11; 
present  conditions  in  the  office, 
315-20;  the  way  out,  319-20, 
346-47. 

Supervision,  rural,  306-26,  339- 
47;  same  under  county  sys- 
tem, 321-26;  under  county 
board  of  education,  322-25; 
present  type  of,  313-21 ;  town- 
ship, in  Ohio,  312;  county,  at 
present,  311;  new  California 
law,  312. 

System,  district.  {See  District 
system.) 

Taxation  for  education,  forms  of, 
193-204;  distribution  of,  201- 
02. 

Teacher:  — The  early,  88;  de- 
crease in  men,  91;  new  rural 
type  needed,  90-93,  283-304; 
teacher  and  the  church  prob- 
lem, 81,  302. 

Teacher,  rural :  —  Call  for  serv- 
ice from,  301-04;  training 
and  wages  compared,  283-88; 


present  status  of  training,  288; 
in  rural  high  schools,  300-01. 

Teacher's  home,  218a,  342. 

Teachers'  training  classes,  289- 
99;  beginnings  of,  289-90; 
instruction  offered,  292-99; 
suggested  course,  295-99. 

Teaching  equipment,  206-25; 
special  equipment  needed, 
218-20. 

Telephone  and  the  farmer,  32. 

Tenantry,  farm,  51-61;  in  the 
United  States,  51;  in  each 
state,  53;  increase  in,  52;  ten- 
antry vs.  ownership,  107;  ten- 
antry and  social  life,  66-68. 

Tenants,  new,  and  local  govern- 
ment, 69. 

Third  period  in  agricultural  de- 
velopment, 18-28. 

Town  and  township  taxation, 
197-98. 

Town  movement  of  farmers,  36. 

Tovra  or  township  system,  186- 
90. 

Town  system,  the  New  England, 
187. 

Town  vs.  district  control,  188. 

Township,  the  Western,  189. 

Trading,  early  markets,  13. 

Trains,  agricultural,  39. 

Travel,  farmers  enjoying,  66. 

Utah,  county-unit  plan  in,  213- 
23. 

Workroom  in  the  rural  school, 
211,  214,  215. 

Y.M.C.A.,  county-work  divi- 
sion, 123,  124,  138-43,  302. 

Y.W.C.A.,  county- work  divi- 
sion, 123,  124,  142-44,  302. 


RIVERSIDE 
TEXTBOOKS    IN    EDUCATION 

General  Educational  Theory 

PSYCHOLOGY   FOR   NORMAL  SCHOOLS. 
By  L.  A.  AvERiLL,  Massachusetts  State  Normal  School,  Worcester. 

EXPERIMENTAL  EDUCATION. 

By  F.  N.  Frbbman,  Uuiversity  of  Chicago. 

HOW  CHILDREN  LEARN. 

By  F.  N.  Freeman. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  THE  COMMON  BRANCHES. 

By  F.  N.  Freeman. 

DISCIPLINE  AS  A  SCHOOL  PROBLEM. 
By  A.  C.  Pbrky,  Jr. 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  EDUCATIONAL  SOCIOLOGY. 

By  W.  R.  Smith,  Kansas  State  Normal  School. 

TRAINING  FOR  EFFECTIVE  STUDY. 
By  F.  W.  Thomas,  State  Normal  School,  Fresno,  California. 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  CHILD  PSYCHOLOGY. 

By  C.  W.  Waddle,  Ph.D.,  Los  Angeles  State  Normal  SchooL 

History  of  Education 

THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION. 

By  E.  P.  Cubberley. 
A  BRIEF  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION. 

By   K.  P.   CUBBERLKY, 

READINGS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION. 
By  E.  P.  Cubberley. 

PUBLIC  EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

By  E.  P.  CUBBBRLBY. 

Administration  and  Supervision  of  Schools 

HEALTHFUL    SCHOOLS:    HOW   TO    BUILD,   EQUIP,  AND   MAIN 
TAIN  THEM. 

By  May  Avres,  J.  F.  Williams,  M.D.,  University  of  Cincinnati,  and  T.  D 
Wood,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION. 
By  E.  P.  Cubberley. 

RURAL  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION. 
By  E.  P.  Cubbbkley. 

HEALTH  WORK  IN  THE  SCHOOLS. 
By  E.  B.  HoAG,  M.D.,  and  L.  M.  Tbrman,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

MEASIiRING  THE  RESULTS  OF  TEACHING. 

By  W.  S.  Monroe,  University  of  Illinois. 

19263 


EDUCATIONAL  TESTS  AND  MEASUREMENTS. 
By  W.  S.  MoNROB,  J.  C.  DbVoss,  Kansas  State  Normal  School;  and  F.  J. 
Kelly,  University  of  Kansas. 

THE  SUPERVISION  OF  INSTRUCTION. 
By  H.  W.  NuTT,  University  of  Kansas. 

STATISTICAL  METHODS  APPLIED  TO  EDUCATION. 

By  H.  O.  RuGG,  University  of  Chicago. 

CLASSROOM  ORGANIZATION  AND  CONTROL. 

By  J.  B.  Sears,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

A  HANDBOOK  FOR  RURAL  SCHOOL  OFFICERS. 

By  N.  D.  Showalter,  Washington  State  Normal  School. 

THE  HYGIENE  OF  THE  SCHOOL  CHILD. 
By  L.  M.  Tbrman. 

THE  MEASUREMENT  OF  INTELLIGENCE. 

By  L.  M.  Tbrman. 

Test  Material  for  the  Measurement  of  Intelligence.    Record  Booklets  for  tho 

Measurement  of  Intelligence. 

THE  INTELLIGENCE  OF  SCHOOL  CHILDREN. 
By  L.  M.  Tbrman. 

Methods  of  Teaching 

TEACHING  LITERATURE  IN  THE  GRAMMAR  GRADES  AND  HIGH 
SCHOOL. 
By  Emma  M.  Bolbnii;s. 

HOW  TO  TEACH  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  SUBJECTS. 
By  C.  N.  Kendall  and  G.  A.  Mirick. 

HOW  TO  TEACH  THE  SPECIAL  SUBJECTS. 
By  C.  N.  Kendall  and  G.  A.  Mirick. 

SILENT  AND  ORAL  READING. 
By  C.  R.  Stone. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE  IN  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL. 

By  G.  H.  Trafton,  State  Normal  School,  Mankato,  Minnesota. 

TEACHING  IN  RURAL  SCHOOLS. 
By  T.  J.  WooFTER,  University  of  Georgia. 

Secondary  Education 

THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

By  Thos.  H.  Briggs,  Columbia  University. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  ENGLISH  IN  THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL, 

By  Charles  Swain  Thomas. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

By  Alexander  Inglis,  Harvard  University. 

PROBLEMS  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 
By  David  Sneddbn,  Columbia  University. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1926  b 


PRACTICAL  NEW  TEXTBOOKS 

PRACTICAL  BUSINESS  ENGLISH. 

By  Oscar  C.  Gallagher,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Brookline,  Mass, 
formerly  Head  Master,  West  Koxbury  High  School,Boston,  and  Leonard 
B.  MouLTON,  Department  of  English,  High  School  of  Commerce,  Boston. 

Practical  Business  English  tells  how  aiid  what  to  write  to  conduct 
and  promote  business.  Principles  are  pre  rented  clearly  and  defi- 
nitely. Every  exercise  is  so  planned  and  analyzed  that  the  pupil 
has  a  certain  piece  of  work  before  him,  with  specific  directions  as  to 
how  to  do  it.  Much  of  the  material  in  the  book  is  new  and  has  not 
been  treated  in  other  books  of  similar  character. 

LA  CLASSE  EN  FRANQAIS. 

By  E.  GouRio,  Professor  agr6g6  de  l'Universit6  de  Paris,  Chevalier  de 
la  L6gion  d'Honneur. 

This  book  teaches  pupils  to  read,  speak,  write,  and  think  in 
French  in  a  remarkably  short  time.  It  follows  the  direct  method ; 
that  is,  the  entire  book  is  written  in  French  excepting  translations  of 
words  and  phrases,  and  the  vocabulary  at  the  end  of  the  book.  La 
Classe  en  Francois  provides  numerous  examples,  definitions,  and  pic- 
tures to  explain  the  meaning  of  new  words. 

A  Manual  for  Teachers  — "  The  Direct  Method  of  Teaching 
French" — has  been  prepared  to  accompany  La  Classe  en  Fran^ais, 

SPANISH  TAUGHT  IN  SPANISH. 

By  Charles  F.  McHale,  Instructor  in  Spanish  in  the  National  City 
Bank,  New  York. 

The  strong  appeal  of  Spanish  Taught  i7i  Spanish  is  that  the  pupil 
learns  his  lessons  in  Spanish  right  from  the  start.  This  method  stim- 
ulates interest  and  thus  enables  the  pupil  to  think  in  Spanish  and  to 
absorb  the  language  with  amazing  ra|)idity. 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  EVERYDAY  LIFE. 

By  Edgar  F.  Van  Buskirk,  formerly  in  charge  of  General  Science, 
DeVVitt  Clinton  High  School,  New  York  City,  and  Edith  L.  Smith, 
formerly  Instructor,  Geography  Department,  Boston  Normal  School. 

This  is  the  first  science  book  to  be  built  on  a  definite  unifying 
principle.  This  basis  is  Everydav  N^eeds.  All  the  material  is  grouped 
under  five  units,  which  are  subdivided  into  projects. 

(i)  The  Air  and  How  We  Use  It.  —  (2)  Water  and  How  We  Use 
It.  —  {3)  Foods  and  How  We  Use  Them.  —  (4)  Protection  —  Homes 
and  Clothing.—  (5)    The  Work  of  the  World. 

The  course  bears  a  close  relation  to  the  familiar  conditions  of  the 
pupil's  life.  The  applicability  of  what  he  is  studying  is  constantly 
impressed  upon  his  mind. 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1954 


VOCATIONAL  PREPARATION 

THE  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  OF  YOUTH 

By  Meyer  Bloomiield 
A  monograph  by  the  former  Director  of  the  Vocation  Bureau  of  Boston. 

YOUTH,  SCHOOL,  AND  VOCATION   By  Meyer  BloomfieW 
A  first-hand  presentation  of  the  meaning  and  work  of  the  vocational  guidance 
movement. 

CHOOSING  A  VOCATION  By  Frank  Parsons 

This  book  is  an  indispensable  manual  for  every  vocational  counselor. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

By  David  Snedden 
The  author  is  the  Professor  of  Education,  Teachers  College,  and  one  of  the 
leaders  in  the  movement  for  the  closer  adaptation  of  public  schools  to  the  actual 
needs  of  youth. 

PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Bj  Frank  M.  Leavitt  and  Edith  Brown 

The  first  authoritative  book  to  tell  how  the  public  schools  may  prepare  pupils  to 
select  wisely  the  work  to  which  they  are  best  adapted. 

THE   PEOPLE'S   SCHOOL  By  Ruth  Mary  Weeks 

A  statement  regarding  the  vocational  training  movement  in  this  country  and 
abroad. 

VOCATIONS  FOR  GIRLS 

By  Mary  A.  Laselle  and  Katherine  Wiley 

Information  as  to  conditions  of  work  and  the  opportunities  in  the  more  common 
focations  open  to  girls  with  only  a  high-school  education. 

VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

By  David  Snedden,  Ruth  Mary  Weeks,  and  Ellwood  P.  Cubberley 

A  combination  of  three  volumes  from  the  Riverside  Educational  Monographs 
treating  different  phases  of  vocational  education, —  theory,  administration,  and 
practice. 

PRINCIPLES    AND    METHODS   OF    INDUSTRIAL 

EDUCATION  By  William  H.  Dooley 

This  is  a  book  for  use  in  teacher  training  classes.  There  is  an  Introduction  by 
Charles  A.  Prosser,  and  an  equipment  of  thought  stimulating  questions,  together 
with  reading  references  and  courses  of  study. 

INDUSTRIAL   EDUCATION  :  Its  Problems,  Methods, 

and    Dangers  By  Albert  H.  Leake 

A  study  and  criticism  of  the  opportunities  provided  for  the  education  of  the 
industrial  worker. 

ESTABLISHING  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOLS  " 

By  Harry  Bradley  Smith 
A  practical  discussion  of  the  steps  to  be  taken  in  establishing  industrial  schools. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

X908 


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